The Witch Under the Mountain
by AmberKendsLacy
Summary: Everin never truly minded being alone, after all, people like her were avoided by nature. But because she owes a certain Wizard a favour, she might find herself opening up to the most unexpected of sources. Takes place (somewhat), during movies. Don't like don't read. Title changed from An Unexpected Ally.
1. Chapter 1

**I own nothing but my Oc, everything else belongs to , and/or Peter Jackson and his department.**

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The night the company of Dwarves came to the Shire was one that was very much remembered for many things. For some of Bilbo Baggin's neighbors, it was a rowdy night that gave them little sleep thanks to the arguments and celebrations of his unexpected guests. For others that lived amongst Bag End and near thereof however, they woke in the morning to whisper and query over the people that had stayed there, from the thirteen loud and surprising Dwarves, to the old man that some remembered as the fireworks creator, Gandalf the Grey. But, there was one more there that caused them to whisper that much softer, as if they were in fear that the person could hear over great distances. And they would be right in that fear, for if the whispers were true, that meant only one thing.

A Witch had come to Bag End.

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It was during the sit down and discussion amongst the Dwarves, about the time when they had suddenly broken out into a new argument, (cementing the decisions in some of the neighbors minds that they should sound proof their under-the-hill homes and have a serious talk with the younger of Baggins, just in case the Dwarves ever came a calling again,) when their discussion was cut short by the slight, but firm knocking on the freshly painted, yet marked, round door. The leader of the Dwarves, and coincidentally the only silent Dwarf in the small room, Thorin Oakensheild, looked to the Grey Wizard next to him with both annoyance and confusion. After all, all of his men that he had wanted for his quest were here, meaning that the older man had to have invited another into this supposed secret (for now anyway,) quest.

Bilbo moved from where he was awkwardly standing in the hallway near the dining room to answer the door, no doubt hoping that it was one of his neighbors coming to yell at him instead of grumbling into their suppers like he knew they were more likely to do. He was of course, let down by this hope, as instead of a grouchy faced and exhausted Hobbit, stood a cloaked figure much to tall to be considered one in the Shire at least. The Hobbit stood back a step, and the figure took that as a sign to enter, doing so after they had had the decency to wipe their feet on the mat provided. They then bowed to Bilbo, before removing the cloak and placing it carefully on a nearby chair that wasn't covered by the cloaks of others.

What was revealed from the long black fabric was a woman, obviously human at first glance, what with her average brown hair and blue eyes. But all the same, the first glance would cause another look thanks to the strange small lines seemed etched deep into her skin like tattoos, all of them seemingly following across the skin, swirling in some places and straight as a line in others. They started from the tips of her fingers and head, to her toes, most likely covering her entire skin under her normal, baggy and slightly worn clothes that never went beyond the colors of black and light brown. She looked amused by the fact that her head was almost touching the low ceiling when she stood her full height, which wasn't really that tall, but still much taller than Bilbo. She bowed low to the Hobbit before speaking up for the first time since entering the house, her voice seeming too normal, which somehow was strange at the same time.

"Everin, at your service. Sorry to intrude so late at night, but I was asked here by Gandalf the Grey, he wouldn't happen to still be here would he?" Bilbo greeted her with the same he had done when he greeted the Dwarves that were now sitting in his dining room, with confusion and apt annoyance that he hid for manners sake. When she moved back upwards, her head softly hit the chandelier above them and she hissed out an apology which was toned with in pain and surprise, gaining more attention from the Dwarves in the dining room that wasn't that far away. One or two of them even leaning out in their chairs to see who the visitor was, to move back and whisper silently amongst each other, in Dwarfish so she couldn't actually hear. The only ones speaking were again Thorin and Gandalf, the older Wizard getting out of his seat to greet the woman he had asked to come.

"Ah Miss Everin, cutting it a little late, all the same it's nice to see you," He shook her hand and led her to the dining room where the Dwarves were waiting, all of them giving the strange woman equally strange looks before continuing to talk amongst themselves in their language. Thorin gave her only one look, as if that was all he needed to see that he didn't agree with the Wizard's decision, what he said next of course only further confirming that to the group, Bilbo and the woman. She didn't look all that bothered by their whispers and judgment of her, and instead made herself comfortable in a chair by the wall that was offered to her by the Hobbit, whom she thanked.

"A woman? First a grocer with no knowledge of battle, then a woman who is clearly a witch." Bilbo looked a little shocked at the presumption of Dwarf, but Everin didn't attempt to disagree with his statement and instead just smiled, mostly to herself, and leaned back in her chair, the lines on her skin becoming that much more visual in the light of the candle that was by her. The Hobbit then guessed that it must have been these lines that differenced herself from normal human and drawed the conclusion that yes, she was a Witch. The other Dwarves however, were skeptical of her credentials as a Witch, and immediately began to question her on what she could do.

"I don't believe she's a Witch, she looks more like a twig!" That description was sort of right, as she was sort of gangly, her limbs also having the consistency of sticks. Instead of replying to the Dwarves however, Everin instead looked to the Wizard for confirmation on something, ignoring the Dwarves in the room completely, as if she as well had made her judgments of them as well and decided that she didn't want to talk to them for the moment. Gandalf nodded once, and so she closed her eyes, took a breath, and concentrated.

"What is she doing?" The answer to their question was given as she opened her eyes again, the irises gone from them, leaving only white, empty gaps in her face. She breathed out, all of the lines on her skin changed, as they started to illuminate a slight blue, a light that was not even able to be seen in the candle light that she was sitting near, but in the shade, it was obviously there. Not a word was said as she closed her eyes again, breathed in, then out and opened them again, the irises were now back and she looked back to Gandalf. Everin still didn't say a word of confirmation of her being a Witch, since it seemed, thanks to the stunned silence in the room, that they believed her now.

"What did you have need of me for? Though of course I'd guess that it would have something to do with these Dwarves?" Gandalf nodded then brought out a small map, laying it out on the table as the Hobbit went to fetch a candle. Everin stood from her seat to take a closer look, standing behind Thorin as she looked at the map with her own eyes, which was better helped when Bilbo came back and leaned around Thorin's other shoulder to get his own good look. Gandalf, instead of answering Everin's question, just started talking about the map, pointing to the inked drawing of what was apparently 'The Lonely Mountain'. She raised an eyebrow but said nothing, instead letting the Hobbit ask the question that she knew she also wanted answered.

"The Lonely Mountain?"

"Aye, Oin has read the portents and the portents say, it is time." One of the Dwarves spoke up, looking around the table as he did so, as if daring someone to argue with his words of apparent truth, but of course none spoke up, instead they looked back at him in return. Everin sat down again after having a longer look at the map, ignoring a good bit of their discussion. Until at least, one of the grey haired Dwarves said a particular phase that got her attention completely, and apparently, the attention of the Hobbit as well as he entered back into the room.

"When the birds of yore, return to Erebor, the reign of the beast will end,"

"Beast?" Both Everin and Bilbo said together, but of course the Witch sounding more annoyed than the Hobbit, who sounded unsure if he should be afraid. Everin stood out of her chair again, not sure that she was going to like the news that much that it would keep her sitting. One of the Dwarves saw their reactions, the Hobbit's in particular and decided to take advantage of the situation, and went ahead and explained the creature with possibly the worst tact ever used in a polite setting. Everin meanwhile, had resorted to staring at the Wizard with what she hoped was a begging look for him to tell her that she didn't need bother herself enough to be afraid of the apparent beast, as she would not be going, however he said nothing of the sort, in fact he didn't speak at all.

"Yes I know what a dragon is," Everin had been hoping that wasn't what it was, but then again descriptions like those could not lie, especially since they were so descriptive. Just as the Witch was ready to throw some choice words in the wind on how she better not be involved in this, she was interrupted by one the apparent youngest of the group, which they later called out to be called Ori, standing out of his seat and making a declaration. She couldn't help but smile a little at the way his voice sounded, as if he were a child making a speech of he was the better conker player, it was just adorable. However, she bit her lip to quickly wipe the smile of her face, as when the others got him to sit down again, the discussion returned to its serious roots.

"I'm not afraid, I'm up for it, I'll give him a taste of the Dwarf Iron right up his jacksie!"

"It would be difficult with a whole Dwarf army behind us, but we number only thirteen, and not thirteen of the best, nor brightest." Another grey bearded one muttered, which of course insulted a few of the Dwarves into squabbling at the open suggestion of being dim. Everin watched them but made no attempt to quite down the noise, but of course they were cut off by another of their group, who looked sort of like the one sitting next to him, in fact quite a few of the Dwarves looked very much alike to each other, which lead Everin to obviously believe that this quest must have been of family and blood related value.

"We may be few in number, but we're fighters, all of us. To the last Dwarf!" That seemed to get them up in spirits, a few of them raising their mugs to the Dwarf who had spoken. While this was happening the Witch couldn't help but wonder on why she was needed for a quest like this, but then again she knew that Gandalf wouldn't have sent her to come here and listen to such 'secret discussions' if she wasn't. The Dwarf next to him, who she suspected was his brother, spoke out next, looking directly to Gandalf as he spoke.

"And don't forget we have a Wizard in our company. Gandalf would've killed hundreds of dragons in his time," Everin decidedly chose to look away at that moment looked as Gandalf tried in vain to defend the fact that he probably hadn't killed so many, though of course that only escalated into an argument of numbers, facts and opinions. And only a second later, got them out of their seats and standing as they pointed wildly at one another in attempts to dis-value each other's bets and claims. Bilbo attempted to silence them, but of course met with little success, as she noted. They all fell silent and sat back in their seats however, as Thorin alone yelled out two words in his language, letting the silence linger a few seconds more before he spoke again.

"If we have read the signs, do you not think other would have read them to? Rumors have begun to spread. The dragon Smaug has not been seen in over sixty years, and eyes look east at the Mountain. Assessing, wondering, weighing the risk. Perhaps the vast wealth of our people now lies unprotected, do we sit back while others claim what is rightfully ours, or do we seize this chance to take back Erebor!" They cheered again, their emotions on this night defiantly being a mixed bag in the Witch's opinion as they seemed to skip from angry, happy and serious in an instant. This case being a good one as their cheers were again silenced by the serious talk of one of the grey bearded Dwarves.

"You forget that the Gate is sealed. There is no way into that Mountain."

"That my dear Balin; is simply not entirely true," Gandalf said mysteriously, pulling out a strange key that the Witch swore she hadn't seen him holding before as he held it out to Thorin, who looked upon it with apparent and complete awe. The other Dwarves in the room, Everin noticed, seemed also completely surprised by the new addition of this key, and sat in silence for longer than they had the whole time that she had even been here. The key didn't seem to draw any real significance to her, nor to Bilbo either it seemed, as she saw from his expression, which hadn't really changed from the annoyed look one would have when Dwarves show up unexpectedly in your home and start yelling to each other of secrets that the whole Shire must have known about by this point.

"How came you by this?"

"It was given to me by your father, by Thrian, for safe keeping. It is yours now." Now there was intrigue from both the Witch and the Hobbit, as they watched as Gandalf gently gave the key to the Dwarf leader, the other Dwarves still silent until one spoke up again, and again Everin couldn't help but finally see some connection between this Dwarf, his brother and Thorin. A very important family deed apparently, all the more reason why she shouldn't get involved in such matters in her opinion.

"If there is a key, there must be a door," Apparently then, this wasn't the key to the front door as she had first thought, and Gandalf nodding along with the Dwarf cemented this fact as he pointed with his pipe to a certain corner of the map, a hand pointing towards the mountain with Dwarven script written under it, that of course she couldn't ever hope to read as she herself didn't understand the language. However, of course Thorin and Gandalf could from their expression, and from Gandalf's words as he spoke up to any of the Dwarves on the other side of the room that couldn't see the map, Bilbo leaning over again to get a better look at the words that he didn't understand.

"These runes speak of a hidden passage in the lower halls," They looked more amused now at their certainties, the dwarf that had spoken before clasped the shoulder of his brother, other Dwarves doing the same to their kin. The woman couldn't help but admire the family closeness of the Dwarves for the millisecond it lasted before the mood of the room and discussion changed pace again, all of them apparently very comfortable around each other, as if they had been together as a group for a while longer than she would know. Gandalf, of course, was the one to break the mood from merry to serious again as he continued with what he had been stating previously but never got the chance to say.

"If we can find it, but Dwarf doors are invisible when closed," Now, Everin found that to be an engineering error on their behalf, since it did seem that having an invisible door like that would only ever lead to annoying situations like this, were it would be impossible to really find it fast enough. The Witch of course she never dared to state her opinions out loud to the group, since that would have been rude of her. Even if it were true, it was still rude.

"The answer lies hidden somewhere in this map, and I do not have the skill to find it, but, there are others in Middle Earth who can." That look that Thorin gave Gandalf in that second, it was one that even Everin would dare to question, the look of knowledge, and yet disapproval. He knew whom the Wizard spoke of, but for some reason was not willing to accept help from whoever it was. Of course she had some suspicions of her own, but again, didn't say so for the sake of manners and for the fact that she had been rather silent so far and saw no reason not to continue to be.

"The task I have in mind will require a great deal of stealth, and no small amount of courage. But, if we are careful and clever, I believe that it can be done." The younger Dwarf, whom she remembered was called Ori, spoke up again, declaring that yes, they were going to need a burglar for that job, which of course Everin couldn't help agree. But when she saw that they were all looking to Bilbo, she was unsure again pretty darn fast, and it was all because of the look on the Hobbit's face, and his dismissal of the idea when they asked after him being an expert. Gandalf attempted to quite down the young Baggins, but was unsuccessful as now the Dwarves were wary of their apparent applicant, the grey bearded one speaking first to agree with the Hobbit, and was closely followed up by another.

"Aye, the wild is no place for gentle folk who can neither fight nor fend for themselves." The mumbled in agreement, but Everin just didn't like the look he gave to the Hobbit, which briefly lingered on her before she looked at him right back. They started chatting amongst themselves again as Gandalf started to get more and more annoyed until finally he boiled over and started to speak with the same lowered and scary tone that he knew the Witch disliked immensely, as it caused long lasting Goosebumps to trail up her legs and arms. She looked, and sure enough there were the bumps on her skin. While she was busy rubbing at her arms, the company went silent, and for good reason. The Wizard went on to explain why he had chosen Bilbo to be a part of this expedition, of course leaving out the reason she was here as well since they hadn't brought that up, a good maneuver to sway off a bigger and louder argument.

"-There is allot more to him than appearances suggest, and a great deal more to offer than any of you know, including himself." The discussion then seemed to change to only include Thorin and Gandalf as they started a staring contest, both of them not looking away for the longest time in the chances that they might lose the discussion, though of course Thorin verbally agreed in the end, even if his expression said exactly the opposite.

"You must trust me on this,"

"Very well," There was a period of silence in which Bilbo was allowed that time to be rightfully confused on exactly what he had been roped into doing before Thorin spoke again, his next words being of more interest to the Dwarves, even if he didn't even look back to the person he was talking about once, "But what of the fifteenth member, what reason or help does she have that she could bring on this quest?" Everin chose the wrong moment to then look up from her still Goosebumps covered arms to see that every man in the room was staring at her besides Thorin. All of them waiting for what she would say, but instead of helping along with this, she held up her hands in mock surrender and looked to the Wizard across from her.

"Don't look at me, I was asked here by Gandalf, let him tell you," The Wizard apparently didn't appreciate being thrown in the spotlight to defend his choice in person for the second time that night, but still went ahead and did so. Thankfully there wasn't that much of a talk made about her being involved, instead there was a lot of questions that she apparently had to answer after Gandalf had finished talking. This was, at least in Everin's eyes, obviously a sort of punishment for not speaking up earlier and defending his choice when she should have.

"You seem to feel that you will be having a Wizard with you every step of the way, but unfortunately I cannot be there to help you through some of it, which is why Everin will come with you, and aid you should any problems of a magical nature arise, and I am not there to assist." The Witch couldn't help but feel as though she were being pushed into something she had no say in, her feelings now shared with the Hobbit who mirrored her look of sudden and deep concern as they were both now realized, as the contracts were pushed into their hands, this was definitely happening, despite reluctance on both their parts. The Dwarves were unhappy with Gandalf's reasoning for her, especially the part where he had said he wasn't going to be with them every step of the way. They looked ready to break out into new arguments, but the look that Thorin gave them when they tried was reason enough to keep quiet, they had after all, been very loud already when unnecessary.

Everin could tell that they weren't exactly very open on letting another, non-Dwarf in on this quest, something she could understand, since they were family apparently. But, they didn't seem to argue it as much as they did the Hobbit, most likely because they didn't want to make Gandalf any angrier, therefore scarier, than he already was at the questioning of his decisions. There was also the obvious fact that she was a Witch, and she just had an interesting time alone looking at their expression when they evaluated her when first seeing her. This always seemed to happen, and it always started with the suspicious looks. No matter what town she went to, even at the edge of the Middle Earth map itself, with her only intention to be at peace, there was always word of a Witch heading there way, and the stories would circulate before she even stepped over the towns borders. Then, when she was discovered, the real hell would break out. Whether or not it would happen in this case however, was yet to be seen.

"Tell me, how good are you at fighting?" It took a few seconds longer than it definitely should have for Everin to notice that Thorin was speaking to her and not to the Hobbit. She folded, and then placed the contract, a long strip of parchment, gently on her lap as she thought over what her answer would be. Eventually though she did answer, dragging out the quiet gap as a way of revenge for dragging her head first into this non negotiable mess of a quest that she was apparently meant to take part in now. Her answer was truthful of course, since lying would get her nowhere in this, especially when she would have to fight at some point.

"I fight to stay alive, just like anyone else would in this world," That seemed to please them, for about a few seconds before another Dwarf spoke up, leaning a little closer on the table as if to intimidate her, his bald head shining a little from the nearby candle light, as he asked his question, the other Dwarves apparently finding this more important than the other question altogether. Even Gandalf looked interested on what she would say next, as if he didn't know what she was going to say anyway, especially from the look on her face. But then again that look could have come from the fact that she had just noticed that the Dwarf sitting next to the one speaking had part of an axe in his head.

"Axe or Sword?" She took a moment to look down at the contract once to see that, yes it was on there, the discussion of weapon of choice, and the liabilities the group for injuries they might get from their own weapons ( Everin decided to remember that bit, just in case,). She had to admit that this contract was far more specific than she had expected, which of course scared her a little on what else could be in there and what it covered so specifically. Anyway, she rubbed her arm a little to drag her back to reality as she replied, her answer apparently amusing to them as they laughed amongst themselves, Gandalf himself looking amused. The only unamused ones in the room was Thorin, whom she hadn't really seen smile the whole night anyway, and the Hobbit, as he was busy reading over the contents of his contract, his expression apparently not a good sign in her book as it alerted her very much.

"Anything that stops me dying at the time is good with me, I'm no expert at weapons, but like I said, I like to live." After she spoke, she took the contract from her lap again with slightly more uneasy hands, reading the contents within with more and more dislike for what she was being shoved into. The murmurings of Bilbo not that far off citing that he was also not liking what was happening here, especially when he jumped ahead of where she was reading, and read the funeral arrangements, and the fact that no one was going to be held liable if he was burned alive. Again, the same Dwarf that had teased the Hobbit before decided that it was the best time to continue doing so.

"Aye, melt the skin of yer bones in the blink of an eye," That was obviously really not very helpful as Everin could see that the Hobbit was starting to look paler with every taunt the Dwarf let out about being burned alive. After a few words Bilbo finally caved and crashed to the carpeted ground, Everin walking swiftly into the hallway to check if he was all right, before looking up at the wizard, who only gave her one expression, which she nodded to and followed by picking up the passed out Bilbo and helping him into a chair in the other room, her contract and his still in her hands as she did so.

"Oh very helpful Bofur," Everin rolled her eyes in agreement to the Wizard as she waited for Bilbo to wake up, all the while reading over the contract that she was given, hoping for any loophole or such to help her get out of this, but it seemed that the only way to get out of the deal without looking like a total ass, (something she disliked immensely as she hated being seen as something she wasn't), apart from getting there, seemed to be death. Gandalf eventually joined her in the sitting room, watching her as she fruitlessly glared at the paper, as if she were expecting the written words to suddenly change for her benefit. He cleared his throat just as she sighed and placed the contract next to the Hobbit's on the table in front of them, having a sour expression for a few seconds before looking to the Wizard with only one question.

"I already kind of know what the answer is going to be, but I can't help asking, why should I help them?" The fire next to them hadn't hindered in its glow in the least during the night, the orange from the flames lighting up his thoughtful face while Everin, since she was facing away from the fire, was shrouded in darker color. His answer was of course what she had expected, just like she had said. But still, the Witch couldn't help but feel a little annoyed, though respectful, of the card he was playing to get her to do this for reasons she knew were beyond what he had said.

"I believe you owe me in a debt that has yet been paid Everin, this is the time were I would like for you to return the favor I did for you." The woman sighed, her shoulders dropping as any passing Dwarf would notice that she now looked more tired than her youthful appearance should have allowed. She rubbed again at her arm, except this time against the lines that marked her skin instead of an ordinary goose bump. Memories seemed to recollect in her mind, memories that she would never dare share. The moment passed as soon as it arrived and she looked to the older Wizard again, but their eyes seemed to match in age this time as she spoke, her voice heading and cautionary with a few breaths needed in between as she was clearly over worrying herself.

"You said…you wouldn't be around that much and it would just be me. What happens if I… And you're not there to stop me?" He shook his head at her worries, took a long puff from his pipe, then offered for her to do the same as it would calm her nerves, which it certainly did. She thanked him and sat back a bit more in her chair as he spoke, his words for some reason being far more convincing now than they were before since they seemed softer to hear and more gentle. Everin then spent some time just looking into the fire after he had spoken, his later discussion with the woken Hobbit apparently being missed on her as she sat and thought over what the Wizard had said, and also at the same time, enjoyed the calming buzz the pipe had given her.

"I believe that you know you can stop yourself Miss Everin, it has been many years since that day. And if you need more of a confirmation on why I think you should come with these Dwarves, than stay a little longer, they might just tell you themselves." What could that mean? It was obvious these Dwarf men were not that chummy with her, in fact she knew they would gladly like for her not to come with them at all, so why would they tell her anything? That question was answered a few moments after she had thought it, as she heard the unfamiliar sound of humming coming from a room not that far from where she was. Everin moved from her chair to where Gandalf was now sitting, looking over in another sitting room where the Dwarves had gathered, and were beginning to sing. The woman listened to their song as she slowly sat in a vacant corner of the room, looking into the fire just as the Dwarves were, her mind visualizing every word they sung with genuine emotion.

_Far over, the misty mountains cold,_

_To dungeons deep and caverns old,_

_We must away, ere break of day,_

_To find our long, forgotten gold,_

_The pines were roaring, on the height,_

_The winds were moaning in the night,_

_The fire was red, it flaming spread;_

_The trees like torches, blazed with light,_

Everin didn't really listen to much of the song after that, letting instead the mood of the song carry her away through memories wished and thought long forgotten, her choice made at last thanks to those memories, and the song that still echoed in her ears well after they were done. One look at Gandalf, and he knew that she had made up her mind. He gave her a small black feather quill to use as she walked back into the sitting room where she had left the contracts, looking at the blank space for a second longer as she held the quill not that far away from it, her sudden doubts making her hand stay. But the doubts were fought off as the song continued to play in her mind, so she signed the parchment, getting up from where she had crouched to see one of the Dwarves standing behind her, waiting for her to say or do something first.

She didn't say anything however, instead she held out the contract for him to take. A few seconds passed before he finally took the parchment, his expression still unreadable as he took out his glasses and looked over the signature before he tucked it away in his jacket pocket, one last question presented to her, which of course caught her completely off guard. It wasn't really the actual question she had been expecting, but all the same Everin knew that it was important anyway, so she of course answered it with as much of a serious look as she could pull off in the moment.

"Is there any kin we should know of that would argue against the funeral arrangements?" She shook her head as he tucked the contract away in his jacket pocket for safe keeping, the other Dwarves meanwhile, were walking past the two as they collected their things, no doubt to leave for someplace for the night's stay until dawn. They seemed very uninterested in their conversation; only half listening as they readied their packs on their backs. Gandalf seemed to have left the Hobbit hole already, so she just gave the feather to the old Dwarf for safe keeping as well before she went to leave on her own way as well, a small smile left on her face as she saw that polite while she spoke her goodbyes.

"Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow…" Already she seemed to have hit a rough patch in not knowing the old Dwarf's name, but he just smiled and shook her hand before looking back to the company that were getting ready to leave, calling out for them to listen to him. It took some time, but eventually they did fall silent so he could speak. He looked pointedly back to Everin, who was embarrassed by the fact that he had to get the attention of whole company over a mistake of hers. Thorin watched her reaction, the red on her cheeks almost enough to hide the lines that were engraved there from sight, but of course they were still there.

"Alright lads, we haven't really introduced ourselves to our fifteenth member. So, just to begin, I'm Balin, and that's my brother Dwalin," He looked pointedly to one Dwarf who eventually stepped forward and shook her hand before stepping back again. It went on like this for a time as he introduced the Dwarves by their family groups, all of them stepping forward to shake her hand. Everin tried her best to commit their names and faces to memory, and so far she figured she had been doing pretty well. Some of them didn't really say anything to her when she shook her hand, which she didn't mind all that much. Some did greet her politely, Ori in fact being the first to do so, even if he was shy about it. Then, there were the three Dwarves that she remembered most, those being the brothers Fili, Kili and then the other Dwarf, Bofur.

The brothers weren't all that bad, they just smiled cheekily at her and winked before stepping back, which did make her smile back at them for, but that was all she offered. Bofur was more memorable to her because of what he said, and his actions. He took one step forward, took her hand, smiled and winked just as the brothers had, then greeted her in a way that made her blush a bit more than she already was.

"Nice to meet you Evie," The other Dwarves, well some of them, smirked when he stepped back. She knew they noticed her embarrassment at what he had said, but she didn't say anything. In fact, all she wanted at that moment was to leave quickly and just sleep or maybe crawl into a corner. They noticed that to, with amusement, and a few minutes after the introductions they said their goodbyes and she attempted to leave with both haste and politeness.

But of course her graceful exit was marred when she walked right into the chandelier, which swung this way and that after her meeting with it head on. Everin stumbled back, hissed in pain and surprise again as the laughing of Dwarves followed her out of the house and through the roads to where they had decided to stay. The walk had been refreshing, as it did help to discourse the red flow from her cheeks, which were so heated from the embarrassment of what happened that she was sure her face could light a way down the path towards the inn not that far from the Shire, where the company had decided that it was where they would stay before taking off on their journey.

Looking at the building now, she wasn't sure if she wanted to go in just yet, or at all. Sure, she could have just waited for the rest of the company to get there themselves, but then again she preferred not to talk to them again until the next day, since the red still tinted, even if lighter, her face. There was also the fact that the Witch did not usually like the thought of staying overnight in an inn, but luckily it seemed like she wouldn't have to as there was a large tree standing not that far away from the building. Everin immediately began to climb it, the familiar chattering of the Dwarves only reaching her ears when she had managed to settle down in a familiar stance on a rather large branch, relaxing so that the howling winds of Middle Earth could sing her to sleep.

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When she woke again it was early morning, though of course she wasn't sure in the beginning if she was awake as there was sleep in her eyes, which stuck the eyelashes together. That was a bad side to the mornings for Everin, but still it wasn't the end of the world, so she just wiped it away before looking down to the ground below to see what it was that could have woken up. And of course it was the sight of the Dwarf Company gearing up their horses; some of them talking amongst each other in one place a bit off from the rest of the group, though of course it only took a few seconds before the rest joined in on whatever it was as well. Everin continued to watch them, wondering when it was the best time for her to get down and greet the people she was meant to travel with for a long time.

At some point she did pack her things up properly and jumped out of the tree, landing rather painfully on the ground since Everin wasn't focusing, but luckily it seemed as though the Dwarves were too caught up in their bet to notice her. She walked carefully up to one of the horses, petting it carefully on the nose as it whinnied at her, but made no further complaint, thankfully, since she remembered rather fondly how horses use to always hate her despite how nice she was. Continuing to rub its side and mumble compliments at it seemed to have worked in the long run, as it didn't hurt her while she was walking behind it, to see the other horses. They were pretty docile animals, only one or two of them ever sounding annoyed at her sudden appearance. It took some time when she was petting the long main of one of the shorter horses for her to notice that the Dwarves were no longer talking amongst themselves.

The Witch looked around to see that yes, they had noticed her by this point as were currently placing the saddles on the horses she had managed to pet without getting kicked in the face. One of the company, that she knew was either Kili or Fili, handed her a saddle, looking pointedly at the shorter horse she had been petting, obviously meaning that it was meant to be hers. Shrugging Everin got to putting on the saddle, which was a trying experience because she hadn't ever really done this before. After some time though, and falling off whenever she had thought she had tightened it enough, only to be proven horribly wrong when her head met the floor again, the woman had managed to do it on her own and was ready to go.

"Having troubles were we?" The one she knew was defiantly Balin said as he rode up beside her, looking mostly at the dirt that was covering her now stashed away cloak. She sighed, nodded and looked to the sky for a little while, obviously not up to the task of pointing out some more humiliating moments for herself. The old Dwarf just smirked instead of saying much else, and rode on ahead of her, leaving her to trot on in mostly at the back of the group, with only two others behind her. They chatted mostly amongst themselves, but of course not to her, not that Everin minded of course, as she decided that she would like some time to think to herself in the good weather of the day, while it lasted of course. The fresh green of the Shire grass seemed to go on forever, stretching over hills and onward. And though she liked to entertain the thought that the grass would go on further, Everin knew better than to hope on silly such things as that.

Looking about the group, she began to notice that there was someone missing, but of course it didn't take her long to realize who it was. Everin wondered briefly if Bilbo had just over slept and would be joining them at a later time, but then again she had seen how adamant he had been that he was not the right person for this venture. There was, despite her not wanting to be rude, an obvious truth to that, that anyone could see from first glance. He didn't look anything like a fighter to her, but didn't say so since apparently the Grey Wizard saw something that she couldn't, and he'd always had better vision than her when it came to people, mostly because Everin couldn't ever really trust or believe in anyone like Gandalf seemed to be able to.

However, it seemed her doubts where as incorrect as they usually were when it came to Gandalf's choices, since not a moment later, Bilbo Baggins himself ran right past her and towards the front of the line. Everin watched him as he spoke with Balin and handed him the contract, the old Dwarf reacting just as he had done with her. And not a moment again later, he was on a pony at the front of the line, and looking seriously unsure on how to steer the animal. The other Dwarves, for some reason, starting to throw little bags of coins at each other and laughing, but of course she ignored it. Everin smiled to herself and petted the mane of her horse, hopeful at least, that if her doubts could be swayed so early in this venture, perhaps this wouldn't be as bad as she thought.

"I've forgotten my pocket handkerchief; I'll have to go back!"

Then again...

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**Please review, constructive criticism always welcome.**


	2. Chapter 2

**I own nothing but my character, everything else belongs to Mr Tolkien and/or Peter Jackson's productions.**

* * *

The group rode on for hours, passing large mountains that only seemed to get bigger as time passed, the rolling grass hills of the Shire already far behind them as they started already to reach the rocky terrain of the rest of Middle Earth. Everin shifted every so often in her saddle, the unexpected pain of being saddle sore was not a walk in the park, and she could see from the other Dwarves expressions that they were sharing in her pain. Thorin didn't seem to want to stop however, at least not until the sun set on the first day, then it seemed appropriate to set up camp on what definitely felt like the base of a mountain. Everin wasted no time and just let herself practically fall of the horse, but thankfully she managed not to land flat on her face, which was great and everything, apart from the fact that the bridle did get tangled around her foot and required Bilbo's help to free it so she wouldn't fall over anyway, only helping her after she made him swear that he wouldn't tell the Dwarves of course.

Bilbo joined her as they both sat on a nearby log, looking over the long horizon ahead as the sun was still setting, but somehow it was too dark to see. They chatted about nothing in particular, though Everin was very careful to avoid the subject of his Hobbit hole all the while, instead wanting to discuss the environment around them, and even at one point as a sad attempt to steer the conversation away from his books, the weather. It wasn't that she didn't want to hear about his home, in fact she had liked the Hobbit hole at the time, it seemed much loved, but Everin didn't want to talk about it as she thought doing so would convince the Hobbit that he wanted to go home. After a time though, the conversation went dry and both of them decided to just get some sleep for the day ahead, or at least that would happen if the Dwarves were making such a ruckus over not being able to make a fire for the night, since for some reason or another (most likely the wood being too moist since it had been a rather soggy place where they had decided t camp,) they just couldn't seem to be able to get the glowing embers they managed to create, to stop dimming.

Everin looked down to Gandalf from her place in a nearby tree, but he didn't seem all that bothered in helping the Dwarves start the said fire, instead enjoying the pipe he had lit himself. Rolling her eyes the best she could since she was so tired, Everin let herself fall out of the tree, even though she knew it would be a great feat to get back up there again, and walked over to the failing fire. They didn't seem to notice her approach, at least not until she snapped her fingers at the pile of wood, the action happening 'coincidentally' at the same time that the fire suddenly started up. She didn't say anything, being too tired, as she managed to get herself back up on her branch, after about a few minutes more than it should have taken.

She was close, so close to falling asleep, her eyes were closed and everything. But that was of course interrupted by the sounds of howling in the distance. Everin looked down again to see that she wasn't the only who heard that, the two Dwarf Brothers Fili, Kili and Bilbo seemed to be discussing it. Their voices were hushed, but she knew that the two brothers were just teasing the poor Hobbit over the fact that there apparently were Orcs in these parts, who looked mortified at what they were saying. He looked back out to the horizon after they spoke, and Everin heard them snicker, rolling her eyes at their antics. Thorin however, didn't seem that okay to shake off their teasing, and instead got up them as he stood up from his place.

"You think that's funny? You think a night raid by Orcs is a joke?" He walked past them and continued moving, even as his apparent kin responded with what sounded like an apology. When he stopped, he was by the tree she was resting in, but didn't look at her as he instead looked out into the distance, just as Balin went over to talk to Fili and Kili. She looked down at him however, listening to the older Dwarf as well as he told a story, watching as the expressions on the leader's face, as the motions seemed to change with every word of the retelling.

"Thorin has more cause than most, to hate Orcs…" As he went on with the story, her attention no longer was placed on the Dwarf King, but instead in her own imagination as she pictured the battle of Moria all those years ago. Balin's voice seemed to be the only thing anchoring her to the real world, while also delving her deeper into the battlefield that the story created for her. It felt almost real in that moment, but surreal at the same time, the dreaming landscape feeling all to life like thanks to the gory imagery of Dwarves by the hundreds were apparently dying on the field.

"Moria had been taken, by legions of Orcs; lead by the vilest of their entire race, Azog the Defiler," Everin didn't want to picture the terrifying pale Orc in her mind, the stories she had heard as a child, stories of the beast from the terrified whispers of men to the mourning and angered grumblings of Dwarves around campfires over the years being enough for her to never want to meet such a creature in her lifetime, least of all imagine what it would look like. Everin didn't know that some of these Dwarves had meet the creature themselves, and couldn't help but feel a sense of respect that they had managed to leave with their heads still on their shoulders. But of course, as the tale went on, this was not the case for everyone.

"-Had sworn to wipe out the line of Durin…. He began, by beheading the king," Everin gently lifted her hand to touch her neck, a slight sick feeling swelling in the very pits of her stomach. She was always sort of the squeamish type, the mere mention of gore and insides always managing to turn her pale, unless of course, she was trying not to think about it whenever she was fighting something off. But still, she got a hold of herself and continued to listen to the story, the more it went on, the more surprised she was at how it ended, since it had seemed by this point as though the odds were against the Dwarves in the story, especially when Balin had stated that their next in line to be King, had disappeared. It took her a few moments of insensitivity to realize that the next in line would have been Thorin's father, her only clue for that being the fact that his expression changed briefly to genuine grief she knew only a family member could wear, before returning to his natural stony nature.

"-Defeat and death were upon us. That is when, I saw him, a young Dwarf Prince, facing down the Pale Orc. He stood alone, against this terrible foe. His armor went, leaving him with only an oaken branch as a shield. Azog the Defiler learned that day, that the line of Durin, would not be so easily broken." Took less time for her to figure out that that person was obviously Thorin, his last name finally making sense to her since she was wondering on why no other Dwarves in the company had last names, they were apparently names gained in wars or great battles. And just as before, there was a sense of new respect gained for Thorin from her, as the Witch knew she would never have be able to do such a feat, especially with only a tree branch as a shield.

"Our forces rallied, and drove the Orcs back, our enemy had been defeated. But there was neither feast, nor song that night, for our dead, were beyond the count of grief. We few had survived." Now for their respect for the dead that had died on that day, Balin and the rest of the company that was now apparently awake, but stayed silent for a moment. Everin, Bilbo, and Gandalf even joining them in their silence as they also bowed their heads for that silent moment. When the moment passed Balin spoke again, looking over at Thorin with new pride in his eyes as he spoke, the rest of the company standing from their places to do the same.

"And I thought to myself then, there is one who I could follow. There is one, I could call King," Thorin finally turned to look upon his company, his expression now hidden from her as he walked back to his resting place, everyone else doing the same. Bilbo spoke up as everyone laid back down, Thorin of course still walking past at the time, so he answered before laying back down himself, the camp then falling back into silence as everyone, apart from one Dwarf that had to keep watch, fell asleep.

"And the Pale Orc? What happened to him?" Thorin's voice, when he spoke, was filled with more hared than Everin had ever heard before. It even did manage to cause her to shiver, even when she was safe up in her tree. The other Dwarves however, seemed to be use to this tone, even if it was apparently rarely used, as they made no real reaction to it.

"He slunk back into the hole whence he came, and died of his wounds long ago." The silence that followed after he spoke seemed to question that however, and even if it didn't, Everin knew it was unlikely that it really did die. Evil things of the world had a habit of surviving when thought and hoped dead, even in the most unlikely of circumstances. She rested back on her branch a bit more, trying to close her eyes as everyone else, again, bar one Dwarf, fell asleep. However sleep evaded her as all she could see under her eyelids was the battle of Moria, and deaths of hundreds of Dwarves and Orcs alike, the only image standing out amongst it all, was the towering figure of the Pale Orc, (her mind making it seem larger than it probably was in reality,) grinning at its hideous accomplishment.

So, as it seemed that sleep was more than likely not going to visit her tonight, Everin decided it best to at least stretch her legs while she was at it. She landed a little oddly on the ground, her legs shaky from the impact with the tough soil. The Dwarf that was watching, which of course had to be Bofur, was alerted by her sudden noise, but relaxed when he saw it was her. The Witch gave him an apologetic look before sitting at the base of the tree, and rubbed the back of her neck, sleeping in the tree often craned her neck and made it sore something terrible.

"Can't sleep?" The Dwarf said, loud enough for her to hear as she was on the other side of the camp, but quite enough so as to not wake up the rest of the company again. Everin smiled and shook her head, staring off into the slowly dimming fire, her apparent companion for the night following her eye sight and smirking, knowing the staring off into space look when he saw it. Since his leader did have a habit of doing it on occasion and spoke again, his voice holding a bit more humor to it in an attempt to lighten the mood from what the last conversation left behind.

"Don't really talk that much, do you?" Everin rubbed the back of her neck again, except this time more from embarrassment than pain. It was something that she hadn't really noticed yet, that she hadn't really spoken up when she was around the Dwarves, preferring, without her intention, to stay at the back of the group and keep to herself. Of course Everin had an idea that most the company wasn't really that bothered with it, most of them even seemed to forget sometimes that she was even coming with them to the Lonely Mountain. The Witch knew this as whenever she did speak up; most of them would be surprised and look at her for a few seconds before memory would kick in.

"Sorry," And she did mean it, but he just waved her off and continued, the snoring of the other Dwarves around them sort of spoiling the good hearted talk Bofur was giving her. Especially since their snores were sort of loud, there was a little surprise in her that they didn't wake themselves up. It got a little harder to hear him sometimes also thanks to the howling of the winds, so it was no surprise after Bofur spoke he rolled his eyes at the interruption of the roaring winds, which made her smile, but the smile waned a little when he gestured for her to sit next to him. Everin was a little unsure, but eventually she did sit next to him, doing her best to not step on the sleeping Dwarves that littered around the camp fire.

"Ah, don't worry about it, I wasn't complaining. I get that you don't know us, and you might not trust us because of that, but we're not really that bad." She was now sitting next to Bofur, the sleeping forms of the brothers Fili and Kili being next to her while on his side Balin and his brother were sleeping as well. It was only some moments after he had spoken that the fire finally dimmed out completely, leaving them in the dark. Everin wasn't expecting it though, and looked about her wildly, the Dwarf next to her no doubt feeling the wind that her hair created from moving back and forth so fast.

"Calm down there Evie, it's just the fire going out," Everin was at least saved by the fact that it was dark now, so the Dwarf couldn't see that she was a little more freaked out than he was thinking. She didn't really notice the fact that he had used his apparent nickname for her until after he had spoken, but still just shook it off, sitting quietly with him in the dark for a time. Well, to him it might have seemed that she had relaxed and was sitting quietly, but she was still a little on edge, as she did not like the thought of staying on ground level with the light out. So to fix the situation, she clicked her fingers again, and was lucky enough that the embers were still dying, so they light right back up again.

"How do you do that?" Everin scratched the back of her head, where she was sure there would be a red mark from the continuous rubbing and scratching that she was doing. Explaining what she did was sort of more than impossible since she wasn't really sure about it either, though of course she hadn't really tired to think after it that much since she just knew she could do it. She shrugged as she answered, her tone clearly stating to the Dwarf that she was sort of as much in the dark about this as they literally were only a few minutes ago.

"I just do it," She mumbled, as she lowered her arm again and relaxed once more, now that there was a sense of safety again. There wasn't that much talk between the two of them after that, instead they both just sat in silence, watching the moon as it steadily rose in the sky. But of course it was suddenly interrupted by Everin, though not by her intention, as her stomach grumbled through the quiet gap in between them, breaking the mood completely. Bofur gave her a look, one of humor more than anything else, though she could see some concern in him.

"Didn't you eat Dinner?" She did try nodding her head, but of course her stomach betrayed her by grumbling again. She looked down at the offending part of herself, looking annoyed at being sold out. He rolled his eyes at her antics, but still reached over into his backpack, and pulled out some kind of dry food that wasn't really known to Everin at the first glance. He offered it to her, but she shook her head and politely declined. Of course he didn't take no for an answer and continued to offer it to her. Her reasoning for her not taking the food seemed unreasonable to him, despite her objections.

"I don't want to waste your food,"

"The only way you waste food is by not eating it, and you haven't eaten, so here," Eventually she did cave after another bout of grumbling stomach, looking to him with thanks in her eyes as she ate the food, trying her best to eat it slowly, but her stomach was so desperate for food at the same time. Everin finished the piece of food rather quickly, trying not to taste it all that much since when she did, it wasn't exactly the best tasting thing in the world, but it did fill her surprisingly fast. He watched her, and was actually not as repulsed as she had always seen people be at her when she ate the food she was given too fast.

"Not bad, but Bombur's got the faster timing, especially when he's hungry," Everin smiled and wiped the practically non-existent crumbs from around her mouth before joining him back in the silent time they had shared, which was again interrupted not that long after, again, except this time by the Dwarf as he stretched his arms before standing up. Everin watched him walk over to one of the company that had been sleeping, and kicking him awake. The Witch took this as a sign that his night watch was over, and stood up as well, moving herself back to her tree and climbing it before finally falling asleep, apparently hr mind being no longer swamped by the images of the Dwarf-Orc War, or even the probably-not-actually-towering figure of the Pale Orc. In fact, she didn't really dream at all that night, an occurrence that had never really happened before, but was welcomed all the same.

* * *

They wondered over this sort of but not really mountain side for some time on their horses, everyday seeming longer than the last, as the terrain they were currently on seemed to just keeping going. And it never really changed that much, which worried Everin for a moment that they were possibly riding in circles, but of course that was a silly idea, right? Anyway, it was also a letdown that the day drag on for her, since some nights, but only when Bofur got night shift of course, she'd have someone to talk to and discuss things with, or, just sit in comfortable silence with, which she didn't mind either, in fact it made her feel even better, since then she didn't have to constantly come up with new topics to talk about like she had to with Bilbo, to stop him from feeling homesick.

With the other Dwarves however, she was still a little distant when it came to talking to them on her own. Of course she was included at times in the conversations that Bofur made her join in on, but she usually just gave one or two opinions before sitting in silence again. One time, just as the sun was beginning to set, the company unexpectedly paused to camp rather earlier than usual, but for some reason Bofur wouldn't tell her exactly why. This day wasn't exactly one of raised spirits, the reason being that it was pouring down rain, and had been doing so for the whole day. Everin and Bilbo watched curiously as they started to unpack their weapons, and they both seemed to only get a clue when Dwalin handed them two swords and shields respectively.

"Oh dear," Everin sighed, looking over at the Hobbit next to her as he tried his best to lift the actually rather too long and heavy sword off of the ground. She looked to the shorter sword that was in her hands, before switching the weapon with Bilbo's, since she figured he would probably be better off with a weapon he could actually lift. The fact that the sword she now had was more than a bit heavier than she had expected wasn't the problem, what was however, was the fact that since it had been raining all day, and now the ground was fairly hard to walk across alone, much less run on while swinging an a sword she had never used before, with only one hand as the other one was apparently needed for the shield. But, she figured, it could be worse, at least Bilbo was less likely to chop his own leg off with a shorter sword than the one she now had. Which of course didn't save her from that similar fate, but she figured it could always have been worse; she could have been using an axe instead.

"The Witch and the Halfling are going to show us what fighting skills they have. Dwalin, you're with the girl. Bofur, you're with the Hobbit." Everin completely disliked the fact that Thorin was not referring to her and Bilbo by their actual names, but at the same time she knew she couldn't really say anything, since everything seemed to be moving too fast for her to say anything. She watched as her sparring partner got ready to fight her, and couldn't help but feel jealous of Bilbo for getting Bofur. Normally she wouldn't have worried that much, except for the fact that Dwalin seemed a lot scarier and more built than Bofur was. Everin bit her lip, then raised her shield and got ready for the first jab or swipe.

Dwalin didn't disappoint, and Everin was nearly blown over by his attack. After all, she was practically a stick figure woman, going against a muscled Dwarf who had more actual fighting skills, (and had been to war,) than she could hope for in her time. She swore, as she moved back, that there was now a decently sized crack going through the shield, and another hit like that, might snap it in half. There were times that she tried to take a swipe with her own sword at Dwalin, but so far none of her hits ever seemed to make it completely. Bofur and Bilbo were done quite some time later, (something about the Hobbit refusing to fight the Dwarf caused him to lose, but really, she wasn't paying attention at the time,) but Everin and her partner were still 'fighting', and by this that meant that she was constantly trying to dodge his attacks and failing to take a chop at him herself. The rest of the company watched as she tried for ages to get some leveled ground so that she could attack properly, but it never seemed to work.

"Alright Dwalin, let her be," And with that the practice was over, with no winner. Everin was exhausted, her arm strained from having to use her shield so much to stop herself from getting hurt. She moved quietly back to the tree where she was going to sleep for the night, but was interrupted at the last second by Kili, who yelled out to her, just as she was about to climb the tree and sleep. Everin did need a moment to think over her answer, but eventually did turn and calmly responded to the Dwarf's question. Gandalf watched her as she answered, but she didn't look back at him since she didn't know what she would have seen, whether it be annoyance or amusement, either way she would have felt bad for the rest of the night, and she just didn't feel like doing that.

"Why didn't you use Magic to win?"

"Because I didn't want to," And with that she climbed the tree, feeling as though she had been horribly rude when it came to not looking at Gandalf when she had spoken, but at the same time, happy that she had cemented her position on her opinion of her particular skills and how she used them. What Everin had said, she did believe. And that belief was that she shouldn't have to use her power to get her out of every situation presented to her. Everin wanted to prove that she could be more than that, that she was more than that by any means. The company didn't say much to her after her declaration, and because of that she got to sleep peacefully through the whole night, as Bofur did not have night watch.

The next morning greeted her with sudden buckets of rainfall, and since she just happened to sleeping under the only branch in the tree that wasn't shaded by other branches, meaning by the time Everin had managed to get her stuff together, get down from the tree and find dry shelter under a small alcove created by over head rocks, she was, or at least felt, soaked through. Everin wore mostly baggy shirts that were clearly made for men and normal pants, so now it seemed like the shirt was sticking to her like glue while her hair was glued just the same around her slightly rounded face. It wasn't a good feeling at all, since she felt exposed and was showing weakness in some way, so she quickly dug out her cloak from the pack and put it on to conceal the wet shirt.

The others were already packing their horses and ready to leave by this point, so she moved again out of the dry shade and readied her horse as well; none of them really noticing that she was dragging a bit behind, since she always sort of did that anyway. They trotted on through the rain, Everin feeling even more appreciative of her cloak as it also sheltered her from the downpour, while most of the rest of the company had to just deal with it. They grumbled once or twice at the weather but never really said anything at first, since it wasn't all that bad in the beginning, and they could still see where they were going.

After a while though, and a while being several days of non-stop downpour, it really started to get on their nerves. Eventually, one of the Dwarves, whom it was she couldn't tell since she was practically at the back of the group, asked after him to be able to fix the weather somehow. Everin sighed to herself as they partly talked about not being able to fix the weather and such, and she spent those few moments attempting to wrangle out the sopping water from her cloak, only to have limited success. However, she did pay attention after a while when Bilbo suddenly asked if there were any other Wizards in Middle Earth. The Witch managed to move her horse a little closer to the line as she listened to the Wizard's answer, as she hadn't fully known the answer herself.

"-There are five of us, the greatest of our order is Saruman, the White. Then there are the two Blues'… Do you know that I've quite forgotten their names?" Everin sighed and looked out across the wet plant life that surrounded the track they were on, as she couldn't help but feel a little disappointed at the fact that there weren't as many Wizards in this world as she had hoped. And even then, now she knew that there was only one that she was on good terms with, and knew the name of. Bilbo noticed, unlike everyone else, that the Grey robed man had apparently forgotten about the fifth member and asked after him, Everin wincing slightly to herself as she remembered who it was, just as Gandalf replied.

"And who is the fifth?"

"Well that would be Radagst, the Brown," Everin, (as she remembered clearly), and the Brown Wizard, had never really seen eye to eye, at least on the occasions that she ever managed to find herself stuck in one of his many protected forests, which only had ever happened a handful of times and even then, it was now something she tried very much to not do, thanks to those experiences. She guessed that he might just have a sense of dislike for those like her, which somehow caused him to be rather unlikable towards her as well. But of course she never really knew for certain since she never really stayed around nor spoke even five words to him without immediately either wanting to start a fight, or wanting to (and so far succeeding in,) keeping her distance from the 'eccentric' man as far as possible.

"Is he a great Wizard, or is he…more like you?" She chuckled at that, the other Dwarves of the company unknowingly joining her in humor, all of them making an effort not to look towards the two people of the conversation. Gandalf didn't look as though he minded that much, at least on the outside; Everin knew that he was probably a bit annoyed at the Hobbit for his words. He then went on to explain where the Brown Wizard lived and what he did, something Everin chose to ignore again, as she already knew about that. They fell into silence as they trotted on through the rain, Thorin apparently deciding that they weren't going to stop for camp until they hit a 'dry time', when the rain would stop long enough for them to be able to create a fire. Thankfully, some time into the night, that time finally came and they stopped somewhere in the woods that they had been traveling through the whole day, the Dwarves apparently not needing her help to set a fire this time as they managed to do it themselves.

Dinner was simple, just some kind of stew that didn't really taste all that bad, and was as filling as she remembered the food that Bofur had given her being. There wasn't that much talk, mostly because a few of them were pretty peeved at the fact that it was more than likely going to rain before they even finished their dinners. Bilbo on the other hand, just ate his dinner without a word, at least for a while, then he looked to Everin, who was trying her best not to look to cold as she ate her warm food and sat closer to the fire than she usually did. The Witch did eventually notice the Hobbit staring at her, and looked back up at him, not to challenge, but in curiosity. Deciding that was the appropriate time, he sprung a question on her that she had to think about for a moment before replying.

"What about you Everin? Are there any other Witches in Middle Earth?" Everin sighed, and took a moment to again attempt to wring out the water from her soaking cloak before giving up on that agenda once and for all, and answering the question. She never really had anyone ask her this before, since apparently one of her was bad enough in this world, who would ever want the knowledge of there being more than one in existence? She spoke slowly, as if she had to carefully choose her words in order to either hide something, or for the thought that she might not actually know if everything that she was saying was one hundred percent true and factual.

"No, not that I know of. I haven't met anyone like me yet, so I just assume it's just me here. This isn't all that hard to accept really, after all, Witches aren't actually considered to be a 'race' of their own." That got the attention of the rest of the company, whom had been mostly ignoring their conversation and grumbling into their food. They listened to the rest of Everin's explanation with interest, thought of course they tried not to show it completely. Bofur however, (for some reason,) didn't disguise his interest as she continued to explain exactly what Witches really were, and even asked some questions of his own.

"What do you mean by that?" The Dwarf asked, after drinking up a bit of his stew, some of the juices left on his long mustache. She smiled and looked back at the fire as she answered, holding her hands out to the flames in order for them to be heated up better, but not to close of course. Her voice sounded as though she were, at that time lost in some memories that she'd rather not really think about, but couldn't help do so in this occasion. Every so often she would look to Gandalf, as if she needed confirmation, or a look form the old Wizard that could tell her she was allowed to stop talking, but received nothing from him.

"I mean that, any person who is chosen, or born with the future of becoming a Witch, they don't do so straight away. They can be anything, Elf, Human, maybe even Hobbit, I don't know for sure. The only thing that truly decides who will be a Witch and who won't is the factor that it's always a girl, there are no boy Witches. There's literally no way anyone could detect them from being any different from the kin they were born into for the first few years of their lives, because nothing is different about them for those few years they are given to be 'normal'. Then, when the time is apparently right, they change overnight. And by that I mean that they literally fall asleep one thing, one person, and wake up as something and someone else." The wind got a little colder as she spoke, an obvious sign that it was going to rain again, and soon. Everin drank up the last of her own dinner, wiped her mouth on her arm, and then got ready to go up in one of the trees to sleep. In fact she was in the middle of deciding which tree branch would be the best one when Bilbo interrupted her by asking another question.

"How old were you, when you…changed?" She didn't speak for a moment, and actually looked to Gandalf one last time, who nodded, (but at the same time his expression was sour, or wasn't it always like that when he was tired?) before she answered. None of the Dwarves said much after she had spoken, some of them not even looking at her. Bilbo and Bofur however, looked repentant as they could now see that this was obviously a hard subject for her to talk about, especially with such strangers. Since her voice seemed to carry even more weight as she spoke, probably the same weight that she carries on her shoulders.

"Ten, I was ten years old… I went to sleep one night, and woke up with these lines, all over me." Everin held up her arms, a blue light once again, only just being visible in the lines on the skin. She didn't sound overly upset, but there was that smallest hints of a tinge of sadness that could be picked up in her tone, and nothing more. With that said, she walked towards the closest tree, no longer caring for comfort since all she wanted to do at that point was sleep and get out of this conversation at the same time. However there was another interruption for her, but she was surprised to find that it was Thorin that had asked the last question of her for the night.

"Why don't they have the lines on their skin when they're born?" She rubbed at her eyes, as they felt numb with exhaustion and the want to just close her eye lids, and no longer have to deal with the situation that she was presented with, that really she had lead herself into. After all she was the one who brought out all this information, so of course they were going to ask questions. Still, she answered; it was only polite after all. Everin's reply did seem realistic, but then again, there was that feeling of sickness in the heart and the mind on knowing that what she was saying, not only made sense, but was completely true.

"I think…it was so they wouldn't be killed, when they're too vulnerable to protect themselves." Finally she got to climb up to her tree branch and get some sleep at last, the light blue from the lines in her skin fading away as she went to sleep. No one said anything, and they all went to their bed rolls not a moment later, apart from that one Dwarf who had to stay watch. Hours of not so peaceful sleep (not that she expected any different, after all her sleep patterns had been irregular ever since this quest started,) passed with the consistency of a snail crawl, which was (thankfully,) interrupted by the feeling of a small hard object hitting her leg from a distance from the ground. It wasn't that much painful as it was surprising, and it certainly was that, as it caused her to fall of her branch and land on the still sort of soft, wet ground. Everin grumbled in pain, and then looked up to see who had shot her down from the tree, but was confused to see that it was Ori. He looked like a deer caught in headlights and was immediately apologetic, since he wasn't expecting her to just drop out of the tree like she did.

"Sorry…you wouldn't' wake up, and it's your turn for night watch," Everin nodded, but didn't get off the ground yet as she did feel some pain in her stomach from the fall, and getting up seemed impossible and unwanted for that time. She smiled reassuringly at Ori so he wouldn't think that she was angry at him for waking her up, and while he apparently took that happily, he didn't seem all that ready to go to sleep yet, and leave her on the cold ground where she was. Everin was a bit suspicious of what he was doing when he walked off to his own bed roll, and moved it over to where she was laying on the ground, but she didn't really object.

He was sitting next to her now, and so began some more questions that she politely answered. Everin felt that she was probably nicer, and not as cold to Ori as she sort of was (without intention,) to any of the other Dwarves. That might have been the fact that Ori was the youngest of the group, and he was shy, so being cold and distant to him probably would not have helped his confidence, that and the fact that she really couldn't help but like him for his shy nature, but that might have just been some maternal part of her and nothing more. This was surprising to her, since it had taken Bofur longer for her to actually like him, and not just be polite.

"Why do you sleep in the trees all the time?" Ori looked up to the particular tree that she had fallen out of as he spoke, seeing that her stuff was still among the branches. Everin looked up also, and wondered a little on why she had been doing so terrible in her sleeping habits lately. She eventually sat up, only when she was sure that the pain had past of course, and was relieved to see that she wasn't covered in dirt at least, and relaxed into her sitting position. She made all these actions before finally answering Ori's question, trying to talk as though she wasn't all that uncomfortable about the subject, which of course she was.

"I just, feel better when I sleep in the trees. The wind is cooler up there then down here, that's all." That was not really the truth, but she figured that telling the young Dwarf the real reason would have made him paranoid and sleep in the trees as well. And she didn't want to do that to him, so she lied and tried to make it convincing. Apparently that worked since he just nodded and didn't comment on it again, and they just stayed where they were, Ori eventually falling asleep, so she was left watching her forest surroundings alone, ignoring the snores of the Dwarves around her to the best of her ability.

Everin didn't get up from the floor and into her tree until much later into the night, but of course she couldn't really do that until after she did her best to wake up Fili for night watch. It took some time, until finally she gave in and just softly kicked him in his side, effectively waking him up, but also for some reason, hurting her foot. She didn't wonder why Ori was curious with her sleeping arrangements, in fact she was sure that some of the Dwarves, and Bilbo, were curious as to why she did that. There was a chance that they figured she didn't like them that much or she didn't get along with them as much as they thought… or something like that. That wasn't true, but at the same time she couldn't help but feel they had a point in thinking that, what with her being all distant and such.

That wasn't something she wanted to continue, since being distant was going to do nothing good for her, or them. Sure, she was kind of dragged into this situation via a debt, but at the same time she had made a promise, in the form of writing, that she was going to see this through to the end. And while she wasn't happy with this, again, she had signed that paper. This was something she had to do, and wanted to do. So as she fell asleep, she made a decision to herself that she would try to be more open, to take part in more conversations, just, let herself be a part of this company, for real.

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**Please review, constructive criticism always welcome.  
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	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer time: I own nothing but my character.**

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"Come on Evie!"

Everin steadied herself as Dwalin took another swipe at her with his axe, which she managed to dodge and jump forward again to attack, her sword unexpectedly meeting with his axe, which dropped out of his hand, and onto the grass below from the impact. And while this was a surprising moment for Everin, she knew she couldn't stop now, and kept swinging, his shield doing very well to protect himself as he backed away steadily from her to get his bearings. Unfortunately his bearings were only further lost as he tripped thanks to a rock underfoot, and fell. Immediately she managed to kick the shield out of his grip as well, which actually hurt her foot, but she didn't say anything about at that moment, her sword pointed to his throat. Everin grinned with victory at finally being able to defeat her sparring partner, unfortunately though, this success was wasted when the feeling the tip of a sword on her back, reminded her that she was supposed to be defending herself from two partners. Her shoulders slumped in defeat as she turned and faced her other partner, Balin.

"I keep telling ya lass to survey your terrain, Orcs attack in groups." The gangly Witch nodded, her expression a little crestfallen and flushed with embarrassment in having been defeated, especially when she was so close to victory. She turned to the rest of the group, expecting the usual mocking snickers under their breaths, but was surprised to not hear one, in fact if anything, they looked shocked, while others had the expression of strange smugness. But what was similar between them all was that they seemed a little impressed with her victory, even if she didn't really see it as such. Thorin however, was the only Dwarf (the Hobbit and Wizard weren't really watching at the time,) who didn't look even the slightest bit bothered with her actions. Everin had never really minded the Dwarf leader's insulting opinion as much as Bilbo seemed to always be, so she managed to ignore him just fine. As she, Balin and Dwalin walked back to the campsite, Bofur walked up to her and congratulated her on managing to knock the Axe out of Dwalin's hands, without having lost her hand first. Of course, Everin was concerned with that last part right off the bat.

"Wait, that hasn't actually happened in practice before has it?"

"Erm… Oh look! I think we're taking off again!" And with that, they all got their stuff together and got on their horses, then went on their way for the rest of their day. As they made their way through the mountain ranges again, the forest being far behind them, Everin couldn't help but notice some of the Dwarves again handing each other bags of coins, some looking not all that happy with the action, while others, like Bofur, couldn't be happier as he caught the fifth coin bag to go his way. Deciding, after the action was over with, that she wanted to know what this was about since she remembered them doing the same when they first left the Shire, Everin maneuvered her horse so that she was riding behind Bofur, and asked after it.

"Oh? Well, we had a bet going on who would win between you and Dwalin," Everin would never really understand the reasoning behind Dwarves and gambling, but at the same time she decided not to question it since it was easier that way, and she was supposed to be trying to building a better mood between her and the Dwarves, insulting them was not going to help. There was a curiosity in her as to who had betted on her, but she decided not to ask after it. Again, since she didn't want to insult not only them, but also herself in the amount that could have betted against her.

"And I lost,"

"Not what I saw, or what I betted on," He smiled smugly to her as he jingled the small bags, before placing them away in his bag. Everin, (despite deciding only a second ago that she didn't want to know who had betted against her,) couldn't help but feel flattered that he had betted on her winning, especially since it was more than likely that she could have, and probably should have, lost. They rode on for some time, and she continued to chat with Bofur about everyday things, things that didn't really matter that much in context, but at the same time seemed so interesting when they discussed it. After a time though, and some inputs by the other Dwarves around them, Everin eventually got to chat with Bofur about his interests and such, and was surprised to learn that he was actually a toymaker.

"Do you make like the small windup ones, or the stuffed toys?" Bombur, who was riding what looked like quite a strong and muscled horse, rode up next to his brother and began to tell her of Bofur's reputation for his work. Even going so far as to claim him the one of the best toymaker's in the Blue Mountains, (with him being a part of it the group as well of course,) something that not only made Bofur bashful, (in fact that was probably the first time that Everin had ever seen him that way,) but also impressed Everin to no end. Since they didn't really know this, but she loved the idea of small windup toys, or just toys in particular, given that she never really had as much time as other children to play with such things.

"That's amazing," The other Dwarves of course didn't know about her specific love of toys alone, but they did see the impressed expression on her face, and the slight light in her eyes that wasn't there before, and decided that they wouldn't have minded that kind of attention either. It wasn't the fact that she was a female that mattered to them though, it was just the fact that she was complimenting someone for their work, and was calling them amazing (that certainly didn't falter anything.) Some other Dwarves started speaking up then, talking to Everin of their works, their hobbies and interests, which formed quite the interesting conversation among them all for some time, the bonding thing that she had been hoping and working towards apparently working out so far as she listened to all of them, genuinely interested in everything they all said about their lives. Gloin even told her about his wife and son, showing her a picture that he apparently carried around with him.

"That's my son, Gimli," Everin was a bit surprised to see that the wife had a beard of her own, but still said nothing, instead commenting on how adorable his son was, which was sort of… far from the truth, (again, being polite.) He was small, but Everin guessed that he was more than likely older than he looked. Though of course there was the factor that his beard hadn't really grown yet, but she could see the stubble already sprouting from under his small chin. She gently handed the small picture back, and was about to complement the only married man in the group, of his family. Just as she was giving the picture back however, they were interrupted by Thorin, who hadn't really said a word the whole day (big surprise,) spoke out, just as they were riding past what looked like the remains of a hut or cottage.

"We'll camp here for the night," The Witch looked about their chosen place with less enthusiasm than the rest of the company, as there were no trees close enough to their chosen place for her to sleep in (something that she wasn't entirely sure was unintentional,) and be able to watch from when she had her hour of surveying in the night. She wanted to say something, a noise of protest to the choice, but decided against it, since she knew how much the group had wanted to stop and rest today, the terrain being extra difficult on the poor ponies and horses. After all, Everin didn't want to seem rude and selfish, especially since she had only just gotten to be on talking terms with the Dwarves today, and didn't want to ruin that. She guessed that she would just have to sleep on ground, despite how she knew she was likely to react, and not sleep the whole night anyway.

Apparently there was a heated discussion going on between Gandalf and Thorin not that far away from her, but of course Everin didn't notice this as she was busy helping the Dwarves set up for the night. And she was of course only clued into this fact when an agitated Grey Wizard stomped past her and Bilbo, muttering something about the Dwarf leader being stubborn and pigheaded…or something like that. The Hobbit asked after what he was doing, The Wizard's answer did nothing to calm Everin's already unhappy feelings that she had gained on the thought of having to sleep on ground again.

"I have had enough of Dwarves for one day," She ran after him for a few meters, but by the point she had reached the last pony in the line she decided to accept that yes, he was leaving the group for a decently large amount of time, and was immediately not the slightest bit happy with that thought. So instead of following after him, since she didn't know if he was or wasn't coming back, she instead shouted after him, but of course only loud enough so that he could hear her from the distance between them, since apparently a grumpy Gandalf can walk faster than she had thought.

"What do you want me to do?" Gandalf only looked back at her for a few moments before continuing on his fast walk of insulted and grumpy mumbles, his voice only raising once to give her an answer before it lowered again, and he began to disappear into the green fields and breaching forests beyond. It wasn't until the gray blob that was meant to be Gandalf disappeared into the trees of the forest furthest away from them that Everin let his words sink in, and felt not a shred better. Honestly, it was shaping up to be a rather sleepless and overall miserable night.

"Their your responsibility for now Miss Everin, you can deal with them," Everin's shoulders slumped as she walked back to where Bofur was setting up dinner, and was gesturing for her to come and help as he began to untie the large pot off the pack that one unfortunate Pony had to carry. She helped him for the next few hours as he prepared dinner, all the while she began to grow more and more uneasy the lower the sun fell over the horizon. Bofur had noticed this, but thought it was because of Gandalf leaving more than it was sleeping on the floor (though of course that situation seriously didn't help,) and decided to encourage her in conversation, something to take her mind off the absence of the Grey Wizard. Everin found this very helpful since it did take her mind off quite a bit of things, not just Gandalf leaving, though of course as soon as it turned fully into night, she was worried and shaken all over again.

But still she didn't say anything, and instead occupied herself by heating up and cooling down her food via the lightened lines on her hands. It wasn't really something she did often, in fact it was more of a subconscious thing that she did when she was bored, and alone, so she didn't really know the full extent of her heating and cooling, nor the fact that she was also heating and cooling the food around her by accident. A fact she only eventually became completely aware of for the first time, as Ori almost burned his tongue off, while Balin nearly got frostbite only seconds later. Of course it took only a few seconds for the group to simultaneously turn to Bofur, a look of unamusement on their faces. Everin however, spoke up before they could accuse, and admitted to her fault.

"Sorry, sorry that was me," Everin held her hands up in mock surrender, feeling nervous again when she gained the attention from them all at once, and not for a good reason. Some looked amused, others annoyed, but thankfully, none of them were really that angry. However, they were curious as to how she managed to do such a feat, an explanation she had no fun in doing since she didn't really knew how she did it either. After some stumbling over her words and embarrassment later, they seemed to get the general idea and shook it off, continuing to eat their dinner without any more interruptions as Everin had ceased with her nervous action. Bofur didn't let it lie there however, and as soon as the attention was off her, he decided to ask after it.

"Evie, you've been nervous all night, what's wrong?" Everin didn't cave for a while longer, but thankfully Bofur didn't raise his voice, and the conversation managed to stay between just the two of them as it went on a little longer than usual. Finally she did let out what her problem was, but made sure her hand was sort of covering her mouth so the others couldn't hear, even though she was speaking rather softly anyway. Bofur leaned in closer to hear it, and raised an eyebrow when he did hear what made her so nervous, since it certainly wasn't something he had expected.

"You're worried about there not being any trees around?" She nodded slightly and looked at her feet a little bit, picking at her fingers nervously as she looked up at the wide and open night sky. She wasn't use to seeing such a sight from where she was sitting now, since she never allowed herself before to be on ground level when the sun would set. Everin couldn't help but feel disappointed by the fact that she was so worried, it wasn't as if she were on her own like usual, but at the same time, it was in the pit of her stomach, and she just couldn't let it go.

Bofur didn't really understand her reaction at the time, the only thing he did know completely was that there was something that kept her above ground, and into the trees. Into what he guessed was a safety net for her, a place where no one could really get to her. And she did make sure of that, since she slept at the highest branch the tree would ever allow. He wasn't sure whether or not he should ask after it, since they weren't really that close, so instead he just continued to give her comforting her so she wouldn't worry for now.

"It's just for one night, tomorrow we'll be moving on elsewhere and we can camp somewhere where there are trees around. We won't let something happen while you're sleeping, I even have night watch first, so if you can't sleep for a while, I can keep you company until you fall asleep." Everin didn't get the chance to tell him that his help wasn't really that necessary, that like he said, it was only one night and that she could get over it. But of course he jumped up after he was finished, and walked back to the fire to dish out some more food for the others. Everin watched as he and Bilbo had a discussion, then smiled as Bofur handed the Hobbit two bowls to give to Fili and Kili, then walked back and sat next to her, handing her another full bowl herself.

Everin shook her head, smiling in thanks to his offer. Bofur didn't let up though, and soon after some time she took the bowl with a sarcastic look that clearly stated, 'are you happy now,' and from the winning grin on his face she could see, he was. They ate in silence for some time, just enjoying each other's company as they watched the others banter amongst themselves. Everin, by this point, was sitting rather close to the Dwarf, so close that their shoulders were touching. Which while the others didn't see anything of it, Everin had never done something like that, with anyone before, and while she knew she should also feel as though it was nothing, she had never really had such contact with anyone, ever, and so she was a little shyer than usual.

She didn't move though, since it was a good feeling to be that close to someone for a while, and Bofur didn't seem to mind it either. Nevertheless, the good mood was interrupted by the sudden appearance of Fili, who was yelling of Trolls and the Ponies being taken, and for some reason the subject of Bilbo being left on his own was also brought up, something that failed to make the Witch feel any better. Everin stood quickly while the others started gathering their weapons and asking more after the Dwarf. But they were moving to slow for her, both from their actions and their speech. She needed to know more, and he just wasn't talking fast enough for her. So, she moved closer to the trees that she had seen Fili run out of, and started looking ahead. Her irises glowed a bright blue around the edges as they pierced through the surrounding trees, past the thick brushes, and into the clearing where the three trolls, the Ponies and Bilbo were. She was walking slowly towards the forest, step by step as she watched the small Hobbit from so far away, only gaining serious worry when she saw Bilbo, for some reason, getting to close to the foul creatures for comfort.

"They're going to find him," She said loudly, the only vocal indication she ever gave to them as the Witch than ran towards the trees and into the darkness of the forest she was unfamiliar with. The only thing guiding Everin was her glowing eyes, and the only thing guiding the Dwarves behind her, was her quick form breaking through the dark trees. Everin was just about to break through the last of the trees and into the clearing with full force, when a hand suddenly appeared as if from nowhere, and yanked her back into the dark, just in time it seemed, as she was about to step into the light. Everin shrugged the arm off and was about to attack whoever it was that was stopping her, but of course faltered when she saw it was only an annoyed Kili.

"What are you doing? You can't just go barreling in, you'll blow our cover," He whispered harshly, pushing her further away from the light so that she was now behind a tree, just as the rest of the company finally caught up with them. Thorin was the first of the oncoming group to be seen by the pair, and looked very irritated at the very fact that she hadn't listened to what he had been trying to yell at her during her little sprint alone into the forest. And as the others started appearing through the trees, he let her know how annoyed he was. But of course Everin was having trouble really listening, since she was watching as Bilbo was being very close to finally being discovered.

"If you believe yourself part of this company, you will follow my orders and not just-" Just at that moment, Kili disappeared from where he was and stepped into the light, attacking the Trolls that had apparently, when Everin wasn't looking, found Bilbo. The Witch looked back to Thorin for confirmation to attack as well, since she didn't want to offend him any further. The other Dwarves seemed to be waiting for his word as well, their weapons at the ready. She and Ori seemed to be the only ones at that time who weren't carrying around an axe or sword of their own, but all the same, Everin didn't think about that at the time, just thinking about what she was supposed to be doing and saving the Hobbit.

"Now," And that was all she needed, as she and the rest of the group, finally broke into the clearing and attacked, practically knocking the Hobbit out of the troll's large hands. As soon as he hit the floor, Everin ran forward and helped him to his feet, gesturing quickly for him to go somewhere away from the fighting. But for some reason, he didn't listen and instead went running for a large Troll knife. The Witch was about to go forward and smack him upside the head for having such little regard for his life when they were trying so hard to save him, but was interrupted by the action when the trolls were starting to grab at the Dwarves, and lifting them up in the air.

Everin looked back to the Hobbit one more time before running after the captured Dwarves, picking up a random weapon that had been dropped by one of them to attack the closet troll, hitting at their large, pale tree-trunk-like legs, hearing the creature yelp in pain and drop the Dwarves in his hands. She had to run as fast as she could, and at more than one point she nearly slipped on the wet leaf covered clearing ground in her haste to help the Dwarves. the Witch helped them to their feet, handing one of them the weapon she had been holding before continuing to move around, knowing that stopping for one moment would result in her getting caught.

At one point it became obvious to her that she had no weapons in her hands, and she was sort of surrounded by the Trolls, which was really her fault since she happened to accidentally maneuver herself to the centre of the clearing, the Troll's fire being right behind her. Everin knew it wouldn't be long until they noticed her own her own and unarmed, and she had to think quickly. Deciding there wasn't really much else she could do, Everin turned to the fire, and delved her arms right into the orange flames. She could feel the heat rising, just as she wanted, but it wasn't happening fast enough as there was still conflict going on, and it didn't look at all like they were winning. Finally, the lines on her arms and hands were finally starting to glow the same color of the flickering flames, so she clenched her hands into fists, and turned immediately to punch the closest Troll in their legs since she couldn't reach any higher. Her punches of course landed their targets, which must have felt like hot coals against their skin, and they yelped and howled, trying to avoid her. Of course punching them wasn't exactly something she was enjoying either, since it burned her hands as well, and the fact that punches obviously hurt her knuckles. Then there was the reality that's she was technically touching something that she had no idea where it had been, or what it had eaten.

Nevertheless, she kept swinging, wincing every time she did so before having to rubbing her fists together to keep the heat in, she continued to swing at them, though of course backed away when she noticed that the Dwarves were collecting in one place, so she followed them. She kept her fists clenched; knowing that relaxing them would result in losing the heat from her hands. Ori was the last to join the line as he fell from their hands and to the ground. As the others helped him up, Everin noticed that they were no longer attacking the Trolls and looked over at the tree giants, her fists clenched tighter as she saw that they had Bilbo. She was about to go forward and attack, to save the Hobbit, but was stopped by an arm shooting out in front of her. Everin looked over to see who was stopping her, but stepped back again when she saw that the person halting her was Thorin. He wasn't looking at her, but she could see his expression was a strange mixture of worry, and annoyance at their situation. The other Dwarves, just as before, were also waiting for his word.

"Lay down your arms, or we'll rip his off," there was a moment of silence before Thorin finally made up his mind, and abandoned his sword. The other followed suit, but Everin couldn't decide if she should do the same, at least until she realized that they were still holding Bilbo in the threatening stance, as they noticed that the lines on her arms and hands hadn't stopped glowing. Taking a deep breath and giving Bilbo a look of apology, she relaxed her hands, the glow leaving only a few second afterwards, but it felt like an eternity. However the Trolls didn't seem to be as honorable on their part, as they still had Bilbo.

"Hey we did as you asked, now let him go!" They seemed to be ignoring them now, and were instead talking amongst themselves, the subject of their discussion however, left Everin a little more than queasy. And she certainly didn't have to look at the Dwarves around her to know that they felt the same. One of them let go of the Hobbit to go and fetch something while the other two had their discussion, the pair often looking back at the group with an expression that Everin did not like in the slightest.

"How should we prepare them then? Spit or pot?" By now it as obvious that the Trolls were planning on eating them, and Everin, rather selfishly, thought after whether or not she could run now, and leave them behind. It wasn't as anything was stopping her from running, she could take off now and they'd never catch her in time… But of course that thought didn't last long, especially when she saw how scared Ori was, and suddenly got a surge of bravery, that told her flat out that she was going to stay here, with them no matter what happens next.

"No, we've got to subdue them first, take out the strongest ones, so the weaker can't run away. Like we did with the cattle that one time, remember?" The Troll looked over at them for the first time in their discussion, and Everin couldn't help but feel like he was talking to someone else when he said that. Her suspicion was further confirmed when she heard large footsteps from behind them, that obviously belonged to the other Troll. She turned slowly, but apparently that was to be her downfall as because of that, she wasn't quick enough to dodge the hard object that collided with her head, knocking her to the ground.

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"Evie!" But she didn't answer back as she lay limp on the clearing floor, her head turned away from them as her limbs were spread at various awkward angles. The Troll that had knocked her out picked her up by her leg, letting her arms dangle listlessly in the slight, foul, wind of the clearing. The other two trolls groaned in annoyance as one looked closer at the Witch's limp body, poking with one large grubby finger, causing her to swing a little. He moved back and kept a tighter grip on the struggling Hobbit, before grunting out his question.

"What'd you do that for?" The other Troll that was holding Everin held his hands up in surrender, accidentally swinging the poor unconscious Witch about a bit more than intended as he defended himself.

"I didn't mean to, it moved! I was just gonna knock it over, but it turned around!"

"Is it dead? You know I hate eating the dead ones, they don't squiggle, and it's no fun," None of the Dwarves or Bilbo said anything; there really wasn't anything they could say about this. Instead, they remained silent as the Trolls continued to argue on whether or not she was dead. At one point in their argument she was dropped back on the ground, and Bofur attempted to move closer to see for himself if she was dead. However, his brother managed to stop him as the Trolls decided to drop their argument and get to eating, two of them letting go of the Hobbit to start grabbing for the Dwarves.

It didn't take long for them to be captured, since they couldn't really fight back and they still had Bilbo, and now Everin, and there was the fact that they were still swinging that club around to knock out what they considered to be the 'strongest' of the group, meaning that Thorin, Dwalin and Bifur got a good few swings aimed their way before they were caught themselves. Quite a few of them, the hopefully 'unconscious' Everin included, were tied to a stick over the fire; the others were tied into bags and chucked unceremoniously into a corner. It was about this time that reality set in for the Dwarves that yes, they were going to be eaten, and started freaking out. They yelled and threatened at one point, but then begged and pleaded the next minute. The Dwarves tied to the spit made such a ruckus and struggling at their bonds that they didn't notice the unconscious Witch that was tied with them was starting to stir.

Everin shifted her head about at first, black dots still scattered through her vision and her head was pounding as she tried to understand what was happening and remember what had happened. At some point her memory did kick in and she looked about her with more vision, and was not happy with what she saw. In fact she started feeling queasy again as she was facing the ground at that moment. She looked to her left, and was relieved at least to see that she was next to Bofur, so at least it wasn't that bad. Everin tried to get his attention, since it seemed like he hadn't noticed her yet. It took a few minutes until finally she managed a punch to his arm and he finally looked at her. And again, more time had to be taken for her to be able to come up with what she wanted to say, the relieved expression of Bofur for some reason cluttering up her already jumbled thoughts.

"What's…going on?" Her voice was a little sluggish, since she did feel a little more than just tired, her headache certainly not helping anything as she tried to concentrate on her words. Unfortunately her thoughts seemed to wonder around a lot, and she was left trying to keep her head from swaying around while he answered, his voice a little hard to hear, again, thanks to her recent head injury. However, he didn't really provide all that much information that she already couldn't guess on her own, and so she was left wondering right at the beginning except this time, wondering on how they were going to get out of this. At one point she thought about her hands, and if, she was lucky, there was any heat left in them from the fire. So, Everin began clicking her fingers, faster each time to try and feel for heat, but was suddenly interrupted when the spit suddenly stopped turning.

"Hey, the 'Ot hands is awake! I told you it wasn't dead!" What Everin would have liked to consider as the ugliest out of the trio, (but then again, none of them were winning any beauty contests,) poked her stomach a few times, which while it might have been nothing to the Troll, but it felt to her as though she was being sucker punched in the gut, and coughed and gasped as he pulled away in reaction. But apparently the miracle of her still being alive was not all that exciting to the horrible creatures, as they continued to turn the spit, discussing amongst themselves on how they were going to 'prepare' their dinner. By this point Everin came to terms with the fact that she had no more heat from the fire left in her hands, which meant that all she could do now was what the rest of the Dwarves were doing, struggle with the relatively small hopes that the ropes would loosen.

However, after a few more minutes of this endless exercise, there was a shout form below and Everin saw (once the spit went full circle and she got the view,) Bilbo managing to get on his feet, even though he was tied in a sack, and trying to get the Troll's attention. The poorly Witch was confused as to what the Hobbit could possibly say now that would save them, especially since it seemed as though this was the end point for them. Nevertheless, the Hobbit kept talking, and the more he talked, the more Everin did not like where he was going with the conversation. Perhaps it was just her out of sort's brain, but there was definitely something up, but she just couldn't seem to think of what it was.

"What would he know about cookin' Dwarf and 'Ot hands?"

"- The secret to cooking Dwarf and erm… a Hot hand… is erm," Everin watched him a little longer, curious as to what he was going to say. She wasn't alone in this either, as the others on the spit were also craning their necks to see the Hobbit, and hear better on what it was he was going to say. Eventually, just as Everin got another good look at him since the spit was turned so she was facing him, he did give an answer. But his answer was certainly not something that any of them were happy to hear, especially when one of the Trolls only liked the sound of it even more.

"-To… Skin them first!" The reaction form the rest of the company was immediate, they starting struggling faster and cursing at the Hobbit, Everin joining them when she saw one of the Dwarves wondering off to get a knife. It seemed however, that one of the Dwarves didn't agree with this little 'secret', and moved around the spit towards where the Dwarves tied in sacks were laying, and grabbing up Bombur as he continued, the other two rolling their eyes to his' enjoyment. Everin watched as the Troll was about to eat up the Dwarf, his brother struggling even more to try and free himself. Bilbo reacted immediately, shouting out anything he could think of to get their attention by this point.

"No- no not that one, he-he's infected!" The Troll looked back to the Hobbit with shock, the dim witted creature of course believing his words. Everin on the other hand, managed to finally catch on to what Bilbo was doing, and tried her best to quiet down Bofur as he tried to say that his brother was actually not infected. But it seemed that any kind of persuasion on her part was hard to do, especially considering the fact that she could really not exactly see straight, never mind keep a thought in one place. Bilbo's excuse didn't seem to winning over the other Trolls though, and he had to keep going to make the Trolls believe him.

"He's got worms… in his tubes," The Troll holding Bombur made a noise of disgust and dropped him back on top of the other Dwarves on the ground. The pained shouts of the Dwarves being the only suggestion that Everin got that that took place, since she was facing the other way at the time. Bilbo decided not to stop there, especially since the Trolls believed what he was saying by this point, and kept going. Though of course his next lie was not something that the Dwarves, (or Everin, even though she knew what he was doing by this point,) liked the sound of at all.

"In fact they all have, infested with parasites. It's a terrible business, I wouldn't risk it, I really wouldn't." The Dwarves started shouting at the Hobbit once more, defending their healthiness, despite Everin's best attempts to kick them into being quiet. However, one solid kick from Thorin, and all the Dwarves on the ground went silent once more, before starting up again, this time stating that they actually did have parasites. Everin tried to sound convincing as she also stated her infections, (despite how slurred her words still were, but at least she knew what she was trying to say,) however, it seemed as though the Trolls weren't listening to them all that much, in fact if anything, they were looking back at Bilbo, with a most disbelieving look that she knew couldn't mean anything good.

"What would you 'ave us do then? Let 'em all go?" Bilbo looked to hopeful for his own good as he answered, and of course because of that, the Trolls no longer believed him. Everin felt what was left of her conscious hopes sink as the Trolls continued to spin the spit that she and the others were tied to, ready to accept her fate at that point and just go back to sleep when she heard something from over head. It took a moment to really register the voice, but she did hear the commanding tone of the Grey Wizard himself, before there was a sudden burst of sunlight on her skin, accompanied by the pained sounds of the Trolls, as they apparently turned to stone.

"The dawn will take you all!"

* * *

It took a moment for everyone to get what had happened, before they started cheering happily in gratitude for Gandalf's help. This, of course was only a second later replaced by them starting to beg to be let down from the spit or let out of the sacks they were tied in or to. Everin felt her arms and legs were practically covered with pins and needles as she was cut down from the spit, the itching and ticklish feeling doing nothing to help her stay on her feet as she fell forwards. Luckily for her, Bofur was right in front of her and managed to stop her from reacquainting with the ground.

"You alright Evie?" She nodded slightly, but didn't let go of the collar of his jacket as he lead her a little ways away from the large spit, sitting her down on a stone not that far away so she could recollect herself. The other Dwarves around them were busy finding their belongings as well, mumbling to themselves about Trolls and such as they found their weapons, discarded amongst the apparent cooking tools of the Trolls, which apparently only insulted them more. Bofur was sitting next to her by this time, his Mattock being found beforehand, so he watched the others of the company with her.

Everin would never admit it to the others, since she didn't want anyone to bother or worry over her, but she felt so guilty as she watched the others look for their belongings, sometimes not finding them and having to accept that they lost some of their possessions. She felt as though they wouldn't have been in their situation if it weren't for her rushing out into the forest without thinking first, without planning with the others, or when she was knocked out by the Trolls because she didn't get out of the way in time. The Witch felt as though there was so much she could have done that would have resulted in them not getting caught and nearly eaten, even though she couldn't think of anything at that moment that she could have done, but she did know there was more she should have done. It was after that little guilt trip that she noticed that Bofur was actually asking her if she was alright, and quickly jumbled out a reply before he could worry.

"I'm fine, made of Iron," Her head was still sort of pounding, but by this time at least, some of the pain had passed and she was able to keep her thoughts in one place, which was actually why she noticed for the first time that he wasn't wearing his hat. And she had to admit, he looked pretty odd without it, not bad just...odd. Bofur, in time noticed that her eyes were planted on where his hat should be, and he finally noticed its absence as well, going off find it after he was sure that Everin wasn't going to attempt to fall on her face again. Everin watched him for a few seconds before shrugging her shoulders and lending a hand, looking through the large and small bushes around the clearing for the thing.

After some time it was becoming apparent that the damn hat was truly lost, and it was unlikely that they were going to find it, especially since the rest of the company were ready to leave this clearing for good. Bofur walked off with them, clearly disheartened as Everin followed after him, walking a good bit before her foot caught in a stone and she toppled over again. Cursing her clumsiness she got back up on her feet, rubbing her already sore head as she looked back at the offending object that had caused her blunder, when something else caught her eye.

Just by the large campfire, where it must have fallen off while he was being tied to the spit, was Bofur's hat. Thankfully it wasn't singed or anything, so Everin picked it up and wiped off any nonexistent dirt that she knew wasn't there, before running back to the group, this time watching for stones that so wanted to trip her up as she went. Everin managed to catch up with them, and waited until she was just right behind Bofur; before she quickly placed the hat back on his head, and continued to walk forward a bit more, waiting for him to notice.

Eventually he did notice, just as she expected. But then again, he did surprise her by giving her a friendly slap her on the back when she wasn't looking, which nearly made her jump out of her skin. Bofur just laughed however, apparently amused by her reaction since she didn't see it coming. It seemed that she wasn't expecting Bofur to realize that it was her that had found the hat, but all the same it was a nice gesture that made her feel… different. Anyway, the group was apparently being led towards a sort of cave that wasn't that far away from the clearing.

"What's in-oh my gods!" The smell of the Troll Hoard got to Everin before she could finish her sentence, and immediately she backed away from the cave and walked a little further way until the foul stink was away from her nostrils. She coughed and gasped a little but eventually she breathed some nice clean air. Everin looked back at the group to see a few of them going into the cave, while the others, Bilbo included, stayed out and were also holding their noses in repulsion. The smell clued her in on what it was, and already she wanted to move on and not stay here much longer.

Fili and Kili were also still outside, and of course they took light of the situation to poke fun at the others disgust of the smell. The company was mostly unaffected by their jeers, but unfortunately for Everin, she was a little more squeamish than they were, a trait that the brothers eventually picked up on, and exploited. Everin rubbed her temples as Fili and Kili continued with their talking about the terrible smell, their theories of what the smell could be and what it was made of making her only feel worse by every minute of their discussion. Eventually Everin snapped and informed them, with as much a polite dialect as she could, on what she was going to do if they did not cease with their queasy discussion.

"Kili, Fili, if you don't stop I'm gonna be sick on you," Well, it was close to polite anyway, more like sarcastic. The young Dwarfs, at first didn't believe her words, but one serious look on her face and the way she was holding her stomach, made them back away pretty quick. The portion of the company that were apparently had no sense of smell and had gone into the Troll hoard, hadn't come back out for quite some time, leaving Everin to occupy that time by looking up at the sky, counting the clouds, something that she couldn't really be bothered concentrating on. However, they eventually climbed their way back out, unfortunately smelling exactly like the Troll hoard they just exited. Everin moved closer to the group after some time of having to get use to stink, and was about to say something on the apparent new weaponry they had gained, when she was interrupted by a noise not that far away from their position. They moved quickly to where the noise came from, the Witch irrationally thinking that it might have been the Trolls somehow turning back from stone.

However, as the creator of the noise crashed through the trees and was quickly surrounded by the group, Everin couldn't help but hope that it was actually Trolls, and not the sight that she saw before her. Since Trolls were apparently easier to deal with than the person that was currently being watched by fourteen suspicious and keen eyes.

"Radagst! Radagst the Brown!"

Oh, joy…

* * *

**Please review, constructive criticism always welcome.**


	4. Chapter 4

Everin moved quietly from her hiding space that was behind Bofur, as the Brown Wizard climbed down from his… rabbit sleigh. Luckily he didn't seem to notice her for now as he was busy talking to Gandalf, and pulling stick insects from his mouth. The Witch made a face at the appearance of the bug as the Grey Wizard gently flicked it away and made the motion for the other Wizard to talk to him a little aways from the Dwarf group, the company apparently picking up on the fact that they wanted to be alone very easily. However, as he walked past, Radagst caught the sight of the ever familiar lines etched into her skin, and of course, had to make a comment. It might have sounded to the rest of the group that he was just making a comment, but Everin couldn't help but know that it was just a jab at her.

"Oh and the Witch is here to, how nice to see you out of seclusion," She rolled her eyes at his comment, and tried not to directly reply to it, since Everin didn't want to over react in front of the group, nor start a fight. Instead she ignored him pointedly and turned to walk in the other direction, leaving some confused Dwarves and a Hobbit behind. After a while she seated herself on a log far away from the Brown Wizard, but still she watched the two Wizards talk, wondering what they were saying. Everin, despite her dislike for the Brown Wizard, knew that it would have to take something either very important, very bad, or both to get him to really leave the boundaries of his forest. She tapped her fingers on her knee in a mixture of impatience and nervousness, looking about her every so often as the Witch couldn't help but feel something off in the air.

"Are you listening?" Everin looked back to Bilbo and smiled apologetically, realizing after a moment that he had actually been talking to her. The Witch figured she must have been zoned out pretty bad at this time; since she didn't even register him walking over and sitting next to her in the first place to start a conversation, much less hearing his voice for as long as he might have been speaking. She apologized; her head bowed a bit as she rubbed the back of her neck, feeling guilty and embarrassed for ignoring him, even if she didn't mean to do so.

"I'm sorry Mr. Baggins; I just can't focus right now, umm... What were you saying?" She muttered, but he didn't seem as annoyed as she expected, but then again she wasn't all that good at reading people when it came to them being annoyed, and not showing it. The Hobbit restated what she had missed, and this time she listened with as much respect and interest as she could muster, despite the off feeling that she was still getting in the wind, the feeling of something not being right. Everin decided to just try to shake it off, since it became apparent that it was only her that had this feeling.

"I was just asking, after the reasonable amount of tension between you and Radagst," While biting her lip, she tried to explain the situation between her and the Brown Wizard, but really, all it came down to was the simple fact that their personalities just could not get along, for one reason or another. Everin didn't believe it was on any fault on the Wizard's part, nor her own (at least somewhat,) but she guessed it did have something to do with what she was. But of course she didn't say so to the Hobbit, since she was absolutely sure of that fact.

"We just don't get along, there's not that much else to it," Bilbo nodded as the Witch next to him shrugged, the look on her face telling him that she was being truthful on the fact that she really couldn't say much else to it. The Wizards seemed to be more worried as they talked now, their psychical actions telling her that they seemed to have moved on to a part of their conversation that was more worrying than beforehand. It was during the time that she was thinking about asking Gandalf what it was they were talking about, what worried them so much, when she heard peace disturbing howl in the distance.

"Was that a wolf? Are there wolves out there?" Bilbo stood up after Everin shot to her feet, and was looking about the area, her breathing quickening as she heard the familiar sounds of animals from a distance. The feeling of sickness in her stomach, and in her head, told her that the creatures that were somewhere around here, were definitely not wolves. The others seemed to think similarly as they also got on their feet, their weapons at the ready for whatever could happen next. Bofur was the next to speak, and since she was unarmed, Everin kind of gravitated towards him in case anything happened.

"Wolves? No, that is not a wolf," It turned out she was fortunate to stand by Bofur when she did, as she saw the Warg above their heads before anyone else did, and managed to pull him and Bilbo out of the way in time, just as the horrid creature ran past them. Thorin managed to take the creature down while it was still charging, but didn't see the one just behind him, at least not until Kili managed to shoot it down with his bow, Dwalin swiftly finishing it off. The stench of their kind, the odor of their blood as they died reached Everin's nostrils far sooner than she ever realized it would, and nearly gagged on the smell. Bilbo seemed to have the same reaction as her, while the rest of the company managed to ignore it just fine as Thorin wrenched his sword out of the Warg's skull, immediately warning his company of the danger.

"Warg Scouts, which means an Orc pack is not that far behind," Gandalf seemed the more disturbed than the rest of the group, which is certainly saying something as they were very uncomfortable with their current situation. Everin was still sticking by Bofur and Bilbo, the three of them, along with the rest of the group that wasn't talking at that moment, was looking all about them, waiting for their next possible attack. The Grey Wizard spoke to Thorin with urgency, his voice detailing that there was something more to what was going on, that the Wizard was not saying.

"Who did you tell of your quest, beyond your kin?" Thorin looked affronted at the question, but still answered it, as there was little time to read into the Wizard's words at this moment, what with their lives being in danger and all. The group looked quickly between Thorin and Gandalf as they talked, back and forth in the hopes that a plan of action would eventually be thought up, and hopefully soon. Everin watched their little intervention with growing unease, the sounds of the Orc pack that was meant to be away from them, were growing nearer and nearer by the second that they wasted.

"No one, I swear. What in Durin's name is going on?" She could barely hear them speak by this point, as all she could hear, searing in her ears and making them ache, was the screams and howls of blood lust coming from the dreadful creatures, the ground pounding with their descent upon the small forest where they hid. They were only getting closer with ever futile moment, and all Everin felt she could do in that noise filled seconds, was to stand, and listen to the blaring sounds of an attack that she couldn't shake away. Fortunately though, it was someone else shaking her, that knocked her out of that horrible phase, and she looked up to see that it wasn't anyone she had really expected that from, and took a step back from Thorin after he had managed to get her attention back to reality.

"They're not that far away, I can hear them," She muttered, fingers beginning to pick at the skin of her hand as she overheard the fact that they could not get away, the ponies had bolted, and what the Wizards were speaking of, worrying even more while she heard their plan quickly develop in a few milliseconds. Radagst grinned to his fellow wizard, and then jumped back on his rabbit sleigh. Before shooting off and out of the small patch of forest they were in, he gave everyone a small speech of good fortune for the track ahead, but of course couldn't help but for one more jab at Everin before he raced off into danger, which the Witch couldn't help but call typical.

"Good luck on your quest, I might even come visit the mountain if I have spare time," One second passed, and then he called, "Well, goodbye Witch." As he disappeared through the green of the trees, her reply echoing along with him (even though she didn't yell, for fear of being found,) as he started leading the Orc pack away from the group, laughing merrily the whole way. Everin knew what he had said had been in good humor, for the first time in seemingly ages, so she replied accordingly, a small smile etching across her face, before it disappeared again.

"For the last time, old man, its Everin," Not a second later, Gandalf was leading them through the forest and out through the rock riddled field, the far off sounds of the Orc's chasing Radagst were the only sign they got on how safe they were in those moments. They weaved through the rocks, always looking all about them for the Orc pack that could attack them at any moment. Everin was feeling a little more than worried as she was sort of unarmed at the time, (something that she blamed herself for, since she didn't say anything of it at an earlier time,) which wasn't unusual for her, but at the same time she had never been in situations like this. So she instead stuck close by Dwarves, mostly Dwalin, just to be sure.

However, it seemed their attempt to get away was becoming fruitless, as the Orc pack never seemed to leave the field altogether and instead were chasing the Brown Wizard in circles, hoping to catch him. The group was left to hide behind rocks at any moment, which was really nearly every second as they waited for the all clear from Gandalf. They seemed to be getting somewhere at one point, the sounds of the Orc pack feeling as though they were behind them, but of course as they almost ran completely around a rock, they were running past. Ori nearly ran head first into their vision, but thankfully Thorin managed to grab him and pull him back before that happened.

It was after this moment that it became apparent to not only Everin, but Thorin as well, that they were still going in circles, as Gandalf was leading them somewhere else, and not out of the field. Everin wanted to ask after it as Thorin had done, but at the same time she just wanted to get out of the danger, so she just followed his directions anyway, running with the Dwarves to a part of the field where the rocks seemed much higher, but few in collection. As they were running, they saw Radagst ahead of them, and had to hide against another rock. Which was fortunate since at that moment, a Warg riding Orc jumped on top of the rock they were hiding against.

Everin felt herself being pushed closer to the rock before she could register it, and grabbed the arm that was holding her there, just to anchor herself. Looking over to the others, she could see only Thorin giving Kili one nod, which he reacted to by jumping out ad shooting the Warg and Orc down with his bow. The arm that was holding Everin in place was gone, but she could feel that they didn't want her to get close to the Orc or Warg. She ignored that feeling though, moving quickly to the Orc that had climbed on its feet, (and was making far too much noise,) and slammed her hand against it's deformed temple, the lines glowing white for only a moment before going again, the Orc falling to the ground, stunned but not dead. She looked back up to the others, who also looked a little stunned themselves, and gestured quickly for them to finish the Orc off.

"Quickly, it's not dead yet." She muttered urgently, and they complied readily, their axes and swords cutting into the Orc and Warg, killing them. But apparently Everin's attempt to quite down the kill was unsuccessful, as the sounds of the Orc pack drew nearer to their position, sounding angrier than before. Gandalf bellowed at them to run, and run they did, following him through more rocks and clear patches of the field, the sounds of the Orcs surrounding them more than it ever did before. Everin could hear them better than the others, but that was no blessing as the sounds of their kind were now shredding through her ears the closer they seemed to get. Finally, as the Orcs managed to surround them, their noise got so bad, she had to grab at her temples with shaking hands, feeling sicker with every passing moment.

They were being backed into a corner, so it should have been no surprise that none of the group, or even Everin herself noticed the absence of Gandalf, until it was seemingly too late. Everin felt herself being shoved behind Dwalin, Thorin and Bofur, but for reasons she knew was not good in any way, she just couldn't fully hear them, nor feel them when they grabbed her arm and pulled her back, she was far away in her mind, to a place she didn't want to be. The Dwarves noticed something else in that moment, something that they also had negated to see, and was a put off by it as well.

"Thorin…her skin...it's..." The lines were pulsing red, all over her hands, her face, everywhere. She was behind three of the Dwarves, but was still looking right ahead, past them and towards the Head Orc, who was looking back at her in return as her hands left her face, since it seemed that their endless noise no longer seemed to bother her. It was a strange staring match, but the Dwarves weren't exactly worried about it until the Orc bared his teeth at her, and she, for some reason, did the same back. Everin was not herself in this moment, that was clear enough, but what was also clear was that she was planning to go ahead and attack the Head Orc, unarmed and unprotected. Thorin was standing on her left, but still in front of her, looking back at the Witch before looking to Dwalin, giving his order.

"Hold her back," The Dwarf did so, but was finding it difficult as she struggled and fought to get free, her teeth still bared and skin lines still flashing red. Suddenly at that moment, Gandalf appeared from under the rocks that they had been cornered to, yelling at them to come with him. They followed, but still had to fight the Orcs off, and keep Everin from apparently getting herself killed. It became very difficult to do that very quickly, and Thorin eventually had to order Dwalin to throw the Witch down the rock pass and help him defend, which Dwalin did readily, but still carefully so she wouldn't be seriously hurt. She fell down the rocky slope and hit the ground, the lines on her skin still red, but was now dimming with each passing moment.

"Gandalf there's something wrong with her…" Nori told the Grey Wizard, who already seemed to have noticed Everin's strange behavior. But surprisingly, he did nothing, and gestured for the Dwarves to do the same. She had by this point gotten herself off the floor, and was looking back up the slope, her head cocked to the side as she was apparently listening out for the Orcs, waiting possibly, for them to get close enough. Just at that moment, Thorin also fell down the slope, but was only given a small glance by the Witch before she went back to waiting patiently, the red almost gone from her skin.

"Just clam yourself Everin, you're in control," The Grey Wizard muttered, and that seemed to help as the red was almost completely gone, the Dwarves would have to squint to be able to see it. But of course that process was spoiled by the far off sounds of an unknown group coming to their aid, killing the Orc pack that was surrounding them. Apparently this strange part of Everin recognized the sounds of the group better than the others, as the lines on her skin almost burned out a fierce red once more, and she made a move to climb up there. Thankfully though she stopped in her first footstep by Gandalf immediately whacking her across the head with his staff, which seemed to work as the red was once again gone from her skin and she was clam once more. She looked back to the Wizard, grabbing the top of her head with both hands in a strange comical representation of pain.

"Ow!" She exclaimed, rubbing the apparently injured area while the Grey Wizard just rolled his eyes. Only a moment later, a dead Orc rolled down the slope, and Everin jumped away from it in disgust and shock. The others watched her for a moment when that action came to pass, as if they were waiting for the Witch to change again, but relaxed when nothing of the sort seemed to happen. Thorin moved forward when they were all sure it was dead, and pulled the arrow that killed it out of its chest, holding it up as he looked apparently disgusted, but it wasn't at the foul smell the dead Orc was producing.

"Elves," Everin looked at the arrow in Thorin's hands, feeling queasy again as she thought over how she almost attacked not just the Orcs, but also the Elves on her own, her hands shaking for a moment before she managed to get them to stop, something that thankfully the group didn't see. Dwalin had walked ahead towards a sort of secret path through the rocks, looking only around the corner before turning back to the rest of the company. Thorin's expression seemed to say that he already knew where it lead, and certainly did not agree to following down there, but apparently the rest of the group disagreed as they immediately started following it without discussion.

Gandalf was sort of at the end of the line through the narrow path, with Everin and Bilbo in front of him, so Everin did manage to finally have a discussion with him since the last time she had gotten to do so, it was just before that unfortunate run in with the Trolls, and it was only a couple of words. Everin didn't know what to say however especially since she had just had a little 'moment' of her's, and was normally never very chatty whenever that happened. Thankfully the Grey Wizard seemed to feel her want for a discussion, despite her being silent, and spoke first, but made sure that his voice was kept down so only she (and unknowingly, Bilbo,) could hear.

"You managed to keep it under control, no one was attacked. You had to be subdued as you were startled by the Elves, but other than that, you did very well," Everin looked happier in that moment than she sort of did all day, but then again words of approval can do that to anyone. They walked on for a little while longer, apparently Everin's need for a conversation having passed as she knew everything she wanted to and was happy with what she received. Eventually the rock walls surrounding them parted away to show them their apparent next destination. And Everin could swear she felt her hands sweating as the good feeling she had gotten from Gandalf's words, was gone in an instant.

"Rivendell,"

* * *

Gandalf lead them down some more paths towards the Homely House, meanwhile Everin pulled her cloak out of her pack and pulled it over herself, trying to cover as much of her skin as it could, her head bowed a little to hide her face. Her actions were not missed by anyone, but they didn't say anything s as to not break the silence they all had created during their walk towards a home of the Elves. As they crossed the handrail-absent bridge into Rivendell, Everin started edging her way to the back of the group, trying to make herself as small as possible as they continued on into a sort of courtyard, and stopped there.

"Mithrandir," The company turned to the Elf who had suddenly appeared and spoken to Gandalf, addressing him by a name that Everin had never heard before. But Everin wasn't really focused on that, instead she spent her time looking away from the Elf, her head still bowed in her sad attempt to remain undetected for now, even though she knew she would have to take the cloak off and admit her existence her eventually. Gandalf greeted his friend, and asked after the location of the Lord of this Homely House, Lord Elrond. While this was going on, the Dwarves seemed to be whispering amongst themselves, looking pointedly at the Elf, while the Elf himself seemed to be ignoring them to answer Gandalf's question.

"My Lord Elrond is not here," Just then, a familiar horn sounded in the distance, and Elves on horseback began to appear from behind them. Everin and Bilbo were suddenly grabbed and shoved behind Bofur and Dori, their weapons at the ready. The Witch meanwhile, continued to keep herself hidden for now, she crouched a small bit with the room she was given as she unintentionally grabbed onto the back of Bofur's jacket to keep herself steady. The Elves surrounded them on their horses for a short while, observing the group before finally stopping in place around them. One of the riders seemed to notice the Grey Wizard and greeted him.

"Gandalf!"

"Lord Elrond," Gandalf greeted the Lord of the Homely House, and continued to speak to him in Elfish, which of course meant that no one other than the Elves could really understand what they were talking about. Eventually though, the company was brought back into the conversation as they spoke normally once more for them to hear. Thorin, Dwalin and Nori were the first to move forward, Lord Elrond greeting the meant-to-be King Under the Mountain, the others seemingly watching the Elf like hawks. Everin was watching them all as well, but for different reasons as the other Elves seemed to finally notice that she was hiding her appearance form them.

"Welcome Thorin, son of Thrain," The Dwarf showed little care in the fact that he was being welcomed by the Elf, something that Everin found very strange, but decided not to question for her own good. She had noticed by this point of course, that there was some dislike that the leader held against Elves, but she wasn't completely sure as to why that was, and wasn't sure if it was something she should know. Thorin seemed more preoccupied with the fact that the Elf Lord knew of his name and his family, but had never met this Elf before, and questioned after it.

"I do not believe we have met,"

"You have your Grandfather's bearing, I knew Thror when he ruled under the Mountain," That alone seemed to only make the Dwarf irritated with the Elf Lord, though of course he didn't really fully show it. Instead he just made a small comment that only added some more questions to the Witch on exactly how much Thorin really did dislike the Elves and their kind, since it did seem as though this dislike spread through family as well. The others were watching the Elf, waiting for his reaction, but received nothing as he was now looking amongst them, which felt more as though he were evaluating them for some reason.

"Indeed, he made no mention of you,"

"And these are your kin I assume, though the Halfling is a strange occurrence," He wasn't insulting Bilbo of course, just mentioning him in passing as it was an oddity. However it was at this point that he seemed to notice Everin's pretty bad attempts to remain undiscovered and was now looking to her, waiting for her to reveal herself. Gandalf certainly didn't help anything by looking to the Witch, his expression being the only thing that ever seemed to get her to do anything she didn't want to. Everin sighed and moved forwards past the company until she was standing before Lord Elrond, giving the Grey Wizard one last desperate look before taking off the hood of her cloak, the lines on her face almost being like certified identification for her, since the Elf Lord seemed to know who she was after one look.

"Everin, Witch of Middle Earth. How…strange you should be here as well," The Witch knew what he really meant, he was not only surprised that she was here in Rivendell, but that she was also not traveling alone like she was apparently 'supposed' to do. The other Elves around them seemed uncomfortable at her appearance all of a sudden, watching her more carefully than they did the Dwarves. Everin didn't say anything to the Elf, but just nodded and stepped back so that she was behind Thorin and Dwalin once more, the hood of her cloak however, remaining down so that the other Elves that couldn't be seen at that moment, but she knew was there, could see her face. Lord Elrond proceeded to say something in his native tongue, which of course none of the Dwarves nor Bilbo or Everin understood, and so instantly were thinking it as something bad.

"What is he saying? Does he offer us insult?" Their angry mutters rose a little at what Gloin had said, and were holding their weapons a little tighter into their hands, as if they expected some kind of battle royale to start out in the courtyard after that. Gandalf of course stopped that thought right in its tracks, his voice apparently exasperated with them for being so quick and eager to fight. Bilbo looked to Everin as the Dwarves started whispering amongst themselves on what Gandalf had said, the gangly Witch being unable to give the Hobbit anything more than a shrug of unsure decision.

"No Master Gloin, he is offering you food." It would have been a humors moment if it weren't for the fact that Everin could feel eyes on her, watching her and examining her every action. But of course she knew it was the Elves of the Homely House just being cautious for their home, something that she could understand, but that still did nothing to take away from the off feeling it was giving her, a feeling she was sure she would have to just get use to during their apparent stay in Rivendell. Eventually the Dwarves broke apart to answer the question, their weapons now a little more slackened in their hands at the offering, since nothing was more a better offering to a Dwarf (besides weapons, and apparently mountains) than food and Ale.

"In that case, lead on," they were lead through the various hallways and halls of Rivendell; at one point they had to stop to drop off all their gear into the room they had all been given. Apparently they were offered their own individual rooms, but they declined, instead choosing to have a sort of verandah like room for all fifteen of them. The Elf, who was showing them the room, did stop Everin at one moment as she was unpacking her bedroll, to ask her if she wanted her own room away from the Dwarves. It took a moment for her to think over whether or not she really did want that, but eventually she did decline.

"No thank you, I'm use to sleeping in a group," Really her reasoning would probably make her look strange, but then again she knew that her title didn't exactly see her in a good light in the first place, so why bother trying on making it better when that was unlikely to ever happen. Everin's actual reason for not having her own room was that she didn't want to be away from them in a place that she knew she wasn't trusted in the least to truly be on her own. Everin knew it was unlikely that they were going to try anything; no one really ever does until she messed up first, so Everin knew would have to step carefully while she was here, and do her best not to use her skills at any time, if she could help it.

* * *

"I'm not wearing this," Everin looked unhappily at the dress the Elf Maiden's had given her after having her bath, apparently they hadn't expected her to get her to dress herself back into her shirt and pants, before scooting off somewhere away from where she was. Some of the Dwarves seemed to find this hilarious, while others for some reason were incredibly unimpressed and unhappy with the apparent rules she had to follow. The Witch was more in the boat with the unhappy Dwarves, especially since she so hated dresses, especially this one that she was now holding in her hands. It was green, slimming and all the stuff that she sort of expected from an Elvin Dress, and incredibly disliked from such dresses, since they usually had a habit of looking very bad on her.

"Aw I don't think it's that bad Evie," Bofur appeared from behind her and took the dress out of her hands, looking over the green fabric observantly before smiling back at her, "Do you think it would look good on me?" He held the fabric out in front of him, Everin's laughter catching the attention of the others as they saw the Witch trying her best to contain her laughter as Bofur was holding the dress over himself and modeling it. Her hands were covering her face as she laughed, before she finally managed to reach out and take back the dress.

"Ah, you actually made me cry," Everin sighed as she was still giggling and wiping the moisture out of her eyes; Bofur patted her on the back and smiled with her, his actions actually being to make her laugh, since he did notice that she was not comfortable with being in Rivendell, and wanted to make her feel better. Their antics were interrupted by the entrance of Gandalf and Lord Elrond who came to inform them all that it was time for dinner. Everin quickly tried to get a hold of herself and speedily folded the dress up neatly on a seat, moving away from it, wanting it to look as though she were more respectfully declining the offer of the dress than she actually was.

Lord Elrond did notice her polite decline, but thankfully said nothing of it (which was actually a bit strange, but still, she was thankful,) as they lead the Fifteen of the company to where dinner was being held. She was seated, (after a few stares for the lack of the Elvin dress,) at one end of the table by Bifur on her right and Dwalin on her left. The dinner was apparently something the Dwarves hadn't seen coming and didn't really like all that much, Everin could tell since she swore she'd heard them mutter about meat and the lack of it for the entire silent portion of their Dinner. And she had to admit, after sampling the Dwarf cuisine for the past few weeks, she was seriously not enjoying the green leaves and pieces of Onions that the Elves set up for them as it didn't seem to fill her up as well, but still she ate it, for the sake of manners alone if anything else.

"Can't say I fancy Elf Maids myself," Everin overheard Kili say as the young Dwarf was looking to Dwalin, who looked a might unimpressed with him for some reason. Bofur, who was sitting next to Kili, nodding along with him as he continued to speak. "To thin, they're all high cheekbones and creamy skin, not enough facial hair for me. Although," Kili gave a sly look to the Elf that was just walking past him to prove his point before continuing, "That one there's not bad," The Witch herself however, didn't need glasses to see that was definitely not an Elf Maid, and tried her best not to laugh along with the others when they informed Kili of the bad news.

"That's not an Elf Maid," Everin had to hide her snickers behind her glass of wine, however she couldn't help but giggle a little too loudly when she felt the Dwarf's unhappy glare land on her. He attempted to throw a sort of dough like bread at her, but she caught it easily and grinned back at him. Dinner of course did not continue without another situation or discussion, especially since the music that the Elves had provided for the meal was apparently also something that they didn't enjoy, Oin even going so far as to stuff a napkin in his ear trumpet to muffle it out. Nori was the first to actually verbally complain, and did so by asking them at one point to change the tune.

"-I feel like I'm at a funeral,"

"Did somebody die?" Everin raised her eyebrow at Nori and Oin, since she didn't really mind the music all that much, but apparently she was alone in that thought as the other Dwarves mumbled in agreement. Bofur apparently had a shorter fuse and patience to this than the others, and decided to fix it in his own way, by climbing up on the table and clearing his throat. Everin watched him from the other end of the table, her mouth agape in both shock, embarrassment, and a small bit of humorous expectation…a small bit. She didn't fail to notice that Bofur didn't really begin to sing until he was sure that Lord Elrond and Gandalf were looking right at him from their side of the room.

_There's an,_

_Inn,_

_There's an inn,_

_There's a merry old inn,_

_Beneath an old grey hill,_

_And there they brew a beer so brown,_

_The man in the moon himself came down one night to drink his fill,_

It was around this point that the food throwing started, which certainly had nothing to do with Everin accidentally knocking over a bowl in an attempt to save her wine glass, which she did manage to do. The Witch did try to make it look as though she weren't impressed nor humored by the song, like Gandalf. But at the same time it was just so funny to her, and the song wasn't really that bad, that she had to look away a few times to make sure that the Grey Wizard failed to catch the small smile the seemed to linger on her face.

_The ostler has a tipsy cat,_

_That plays a five string fiddle;_

_And up and down he saws his bow,_

_Now squeaking high,_

_Now purring low, _

_Now sawing in the middle,_

Everin had to admit, despite herself because she knew that Gandalf was watching her, Bofur could sing pretty well, and at one point when she wasn't thinking about it, she even joined in. The food throwing was getting faster and with more volume, which thankfully Everin managed to doge the most of while the statues in the courtyard around them were apparently not so lucky. Every so often she did manage to catch something that they had thrown before it could hit anybody else, but then again that wasn't exactly a great feat as it meant that she would get hit instead. The other Elves who had been playing music previously were now standing or sitting around in confusion, either that or they were ducking from the thrown food, or trying to catch it in the air like Everin was.

_So the cat with the fiddle played hey-diddle-diddle,_

_A jig that would wake the dead,_

_He squeaked and sawed and he quickened the tune,_

_While the landlord shook the man in the moon,_

"_It's after three!" He said,_

The Dwarves cheered as Bofur bowed and sat back down, but of course only after some more food was thrown in the air. They patted him on the back and congratulated him for his apparent saving of music, Thorin himself was even smiling, which was something Everin had never really seen before this moment. The Company seemed to be ignoring the reactions of the Elves, instead talking amongst themselves for the rest of the Dinner about some tangent topic that Everin couldn't really hear and wasn't all to bothered by. The Witch just kept to herself, her head bowed a bit so no one, especially Gandalf and Lord Elrond could see the small red blush on her cheeks from the contained laughter and slight clapping of her hands.

* * *

Once Dinner was over, Everin was quick to make her escape, muttering something to Gandalf as she walked past about seeing the sights of Rivendell. Realistically she didn't really go and see that many sights, since it didn't seem to matter how far she went, as eyes were always following her. So she never really left the buildings of the Homely House, instead looking about the paintings and images on the walls that told of great wars fought by Men, Dwarves, Elves and others alike. There was one image however, that filled an entire room and also had a statue like pedestal in front of it, containing a completely shattered blade of a sword she didn't recognize but of course knew, which made her stand still for far longer than any of the other war paintings in Rivendell managed to do.

She knew of the battle the painting was depicting of course, but for some reason, her eyes were drawn to it, as if there were something there that she didn't already know about, and couldn't look away from it because of that. Everin's staring was put off a bit when she felt the approach of someone else into the room, and turned to see Bilbo looking about the room as she had done only a few moments ago. Everin didn't really say anything until the Hobbit was standing next to her, the both of them watching the still image, as if they were expecting it to just jump and completely reenact the battle itself.

"Taking a break from the others Mr. Baggins?" The Hobbit looked a might sheepish but nodded anyway, the both of them still looking at the image on the wall and not at each other. Eventually though, the Hobbit did answer back, after a small period of silence that neither of them meant to create. He sounded still a little unsure of himself when it came to the Dwarves, which Everin could understand, since she too was having a hard time fitting in amongst them, not as badly as Bilbo was apparently doing, but still she felt pretty put off at times.

"Gandalf wasn't too happy with them for what happened during Dinner, sticking around didn't seem all that smart," Everin smirked, suddenly even more thankful for the getaway she had done just after dinner. She looked over at Bilbo to make sure he was still there, but for some reason afterwards she was drawn to the painting once again, looking for anything she might have missed for one reason or another. Apparently by this point the Hobbit decided to bring up the image they had been staring at for what felt like forever, asking after the main image that took up most of the picture.

"That's…" Everin looked around at first to make sure that none of the Elves were around to hear her, since she knew that they could see her, and were always watching her, but at least they couldn't hear her. "His name was Sauron; he once had control over Mordor and an army of Orcs and their kind, and plenty of the rest of Middle Earth. His power seemed so immense and unbeatable once, but he was brought down by the armies of Elves and Men." Looking at the very image of Sauron was intimidating to her, since it was a frightening figure, cobbled together by stories of horrifying acts and pillages that she'd heard.

"And what about that?" Bilbo pointed to the creature above Sauron, not naming it as a 'he' since the Hobbit wasn't very sure that that creature was a man. Everin looked at the other figure in the painting, a man shaped creature riding another horrifying creature that didn't fare much better in looks as the rest of that army that was lead by Sauron. She felt something in her stomach, something more sick than the feeling that even the image of the once ruler of Mordor ever gave her. It was worse because she did know more of this being, than she ever did Sauron, having heard of this thing more in her life than anything else.

"It… that thing has many names, the Black Captain, Chieftain of the Ringwraiths, and Lord of the Nazgul. But it is better known by many as The Witch King of Angmar." Bilbo looked to Everin with the questioning expression she was expecting, that she had seen before, and did her best to answer it. She had heard more of this creature than Sauron as many people who saw her, chased after her or attacked her, swore that she was a creature of the Witch King or Nazgul, and casted her away. It was something she never understood when she was younger, but of course the day she asked Gandalf after those words, she learned what they meant, and went on wishing that she didn't, as they burned her more than they ever did before.

"I have no idea why it's called that, why it has that name, I don't know. If it created the Witches, created the curse that made Witches or had an army at one point that was Witches, I have no clue. All I know is that I have never seen that being in the flesh in my life, and hope I never do," The Hobbit nodded in understanding, and finally they both managed to look away from the image and instead they focused on the view that the nearby verandah gave them. Everin walked forward and looked over the banister to the beautiful gardens and trees below. Bilbo looked out with her, and the Witch didn't fail to see how content he looked at the environment of the Homely House.

"It's beautiful here isn't it?" Everin smiled at the Hobbit's attempt to lighten the mood from the discussion that they'd had a moment ago, and allowed it to happen as she just made a noise of agreement instead of saying anything. The day seemed to be going slowly for them both as they walked together and looked about the beautiful sights of Rivendell, feeling the cold air and bright sunlight on their skin. They never really ran into any Elves while they walked around, making the Witch wonder exactly how many Elves actually lived here, or if they were hiding for some reason or another. However, the day did eventually come to an end and night started to really settle in.

At some point during their walk, Bilbo was called away by Gandalf for one reason or another, so she was left to her own devices for a while. Well she liked to think of it that way even though she knew she was being watched and every step calculated. It only a few hours until the Hobbit managed to find her again and they continued to walk through the sights of the Homely House, Bilbo filling her in on something about Moon Runes and Durin's day having something to do with their quest. To be honest Everin wasn't totally listening to the Hobbit as he spoke, something that she already knew she was going to regret at a later time, but did anyway.

As they continued their walk in the night, Everin noticed that they were actually walking past the room that the company all shared together. She knew this as the sounds of their laughter and singing could be heard from the staircase they were walking up that was just above the room. Neither her nor the Hobbit had really talked since they started walking together, and if they did, it was to compliment the scenery around them that she could tell Bilbo truly did enjoy. Their mostly silent walk was interrupted at that time by the actually rather loud discussion of Lord Elrond and Gandalf, who were quite a bit aways from their unknown audience, but that didn't stop them from being heard by them both.

"Of course I was going to tell you, I was waiting for this very chance, and really, I think you can trust that I know what I'm doing," Everin looked to Bilbo, as if asking if they should stay now and listen or leave quickly before they were possibly caught, but it seemed by this point that the Hobbit was ignoring her and listening already to what the Elf Lord and Grey Wizard were talking about. So The Witch just kept quiet and stuck by Bilbo, just so that if he got caught, at least he wouldn't be punished alone.

"Do you? That Dragon slept for sixty years, what would happen should your plan fail, if you wake the beast?" The Hobbit made a face that said he was sort of agreeing with Lord Elrond, something that Everin both found amusing, and could understand. They were literally walking on quite the tight rope made of eggshells here, anything could go wrong on this quest and if it did, they would be doomed. But still the Witch couldn't help but feel as though the Elf Lord was lacking a little faith in Gandalf and the Dwarves (well, mostly Gandalf,) since she somehow had faith that they could do this, and were going to see it to the end.

"And if we succeed? If the Dwarves take back the Mountain, our defenses in the East will be strengthened," Now that sort of worried the Witch, as she had to contemplate exactly what Gandalf's motive was for helping on this quest, for getting her involved. Was it the reason for defense that he so wanted this plan to succeed? And if not, then what was the real reason? Did it have anything to do with the conversation he and Radagst had had just before the Orcs attacked? She could tell form Bilbo's new expression that he was also contemplating these questions, wondering and thinking it over in his mind. It was also in this moment as she was questioning the Grey Wizard that she noticed the sudden arrival of Thorin, which only happened because she looked behind her for just one second and nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw him right behind her, wondering exactly how long he had been there anyway.

"It is a dangerous move, Gandalf,"

"It is also dangerous to do nothing; the throne of Erebor is Thorin's Birthright. What is it you fear?"Neither her nor the Hobbit could turn to look at the meant to be King under the Mountain, for fear of what his reaction would be for any words that would follow after Gandalf's question. However, Lord Elrond's response did cause the Witch to look to the Dwarf, in sympathy for such harsh words as she was familiar with such words being pointed in her direction, being spat at her. She wanted to say something meaningful to Thorin in that moment, just as she would want anyone to do for her, but found that she could not find a word to fit the situation.

"Have you forgotten? A strain of madness runs deep in that family. His Grandfather lost his mind; his father succumbed to the same sickness. Can you swear that Thorin Oakensheild will not also fall?" The worst part was Thorin's expression, as if he as well, were not sure of such matter as his own fate. Bilbo was trying his best not to look at the Dwarf leader behind him, while Everin was thinking of anything she could say to get his attention, to let him know that the Elf Lord's opinion was not entirely true, as the Elf knew nothing of the future. However, as she was reaching her hand out, more words passed between Lord Elrond and Gandalf, words that caused her hand to pull back to comfort herself as she felt smaller than she had before. The words passed were now about her.

"And what of the Witch you have brought into your assorted traveling group Gandalf? You know as well as I that a Witch is a dangerous creature. Her anger can be more than just unpredictable and untold at best." Everin didn't see the Hobbit and Dwarf looking over at her now; in fact as far as she was concerned, she wasn't focused on seeing anything. Instead, she was just listening, soaking up the words of the Elf Lord as he continued on, both he and the Grey Wizard still unaware of the audience they'd had their entire conversation. Her arms that she had used beforehand in an attempt to reach out to the Dwarf King were now being used to hug herself as she awaited the familiar routine of the words slung her way.

"Everin is needed for the places where I cannot go with them, places where they would definitely need my assistance. Besides, her anger is not something that she has no complete control over, despite what she herself may believe. Am I correct in stating that she has not once broken that seal during her time in Rivendell?" Gandalf's defense of her was all nice and everything, but she knew that there was truth in Lord Elrond's words; she was a danger when she really flew off the handle, on the occasions that she really did. But there was still something that got to her in those words, especially what the Elf Lord said next, a sense of hurt she always gained from words like these, no matter how often she'd heard them and tried to grow a thick skin for it, the hurt was always still there.

"Yes, and we are fortunate of that to. But how long will it be before that does happen? And while she has been a more hospitable guest to this Homely House, I have to tell you Gandalf, for the safety of Rivendell and my people, she cannot return here again." This was not unusual, to be banished from places such as Rivendell, where many were supposedly meant to be granted sanctuary, and she, again, could understand why. But yet again, it did nothing to stop the hurt inside her that grew a little more. She wished that she hadn't overheard this conversation now, that in the time after they had left Rivendell, when Gandalf would have told her about this, she could have pretended that it was for another reason, or because she was rude, instead of the obvious truth, instead of this.

"And while I understand the good intentions you have for bringing her with you on this quest Gandalf. I have to advise you, for the safety of your other traveling companions, yourself and even her; you have to send her away, before you reach Erebor, before anything can go seriously wrong." Nothing was said from anyone, not the Elf Lord and Grey Wizard, or the three that were listening to them, for a short time. Everin didn't look to the two people next to her for a while either, instead she bowed her head for a few moments before turning her head back to the King Under the Mountain, as if she were expecting him to say something. But of course, Thorin had no words for her at that moment, just like she had none to give him a short while ago.

"While I understand your advice and have to accept her no longer being welcome to Rivendell, I am afraid I no longer have the authority to send her away from this venture. That decision now rests with Thorin and Everin herself," That was the last they spoke of her, meaning that the worst was really over. But there was still the fact that after this stay, she could no longer be here, ever again. She would like to think that it was only for a period of time, but then again, while she could live for a time more than humans (and possibly Dwarves,) ever did, Elves were immortal, so she knew that when they said forever, that actually meant forever for them, and her.

"Gandalf these decisions do not rest with us alone, it is not up to you, or me to redraw the map of Middle Earth," And with that, they were gone to wherever their original destination was, leaving their unknown audience to some more helpings of silence. Thorin, instead of saying anything, just walked a bit away towards the steps. Bilbo finally did attempt to talk to Everin, to say something that could somehow change the mood, (Which was incredibly unlikely,) but she beat him to it. The look on her face was completely serious, but there was something in her eyes that she couldn't hide, but at the same time the Hobbit didn't get a chance to really see it because after she had spoken, she had stood and was starting to walk away herself.

"Mr. Baggins, could you please not tell anyone of what you've heard tonight?" The Hobbit nodded in reply at first; until he realized that she couldn't exactly see his head movement since her back was turned to him, and was about to verbally reply when Thorin had beaten him to it. He wasn't standing that far away from Everin, and was the only one to look back to the Hobbit when he spoke. What he said was definitely not mistaken for a request; it was a straight and rather intimidating order to Bilbo, and nothing more or less than that.

"Miss Everin is right; you will keep what you have heard on this night to yourself, Master Baggins." The Dwarf did not wait for a reply; instead he just walked back to his company. Everin waited for a moment before following after him, looking back to the Hobbit to say something one last time before she walked away. Her voice seemed a little smaller now, as if she was made weaker by mere words. Bilbo only nodded and smiled sympathetically to the Witch before she finally headed off to the rest of the group with Thorin; since he knew that he didn't really have any words to give Everin, so instead a small smile was all he could give, which she graciously took.

"Thank you Bilbo," The Hobbit was left on his own for a little while longer, watching the rest of the environment around him, enjoying the scenery of Rivendell, the scenery that he knew, she could never see again. After a short while however, he gave in and back to the group as well, as he wanted to just go to sleep for now, and put this night behind him just as Everin and Thorin were doing.

* * *

"We will be leaving early tomorrow morning," Thorin announced as he walked into the room, Everin following after him not a second later. She didn't say very much, in fact the Witch just laid down on her bed roll and made no comment as the rest of the Company got to sleep for the night. Everin still wasn't happy with the fact that there wasn't a tree for her to sleep in, so really she didn't sleep much that night as she constantly found herself waking up to every small noise she heard, whether it be something as normal as the Dwarves snoring, or innocent like the birds chirping away in far off trees.

After the umpteenth time in this routine, Everin just gave up on the idea of sleep for a little while, especially since she could already see the sun rising over the pale white rock ledges that surrounded the Homely House. Quietly, she walked out of the room they all shared, and out into the courtyard not that far away, taking in the sight of the morning sun over the horizon while it lasted. But sometime during this little observation, she remembered that Thorin had said they'd be leaving early tomorrow, and quickly made her way back into the room so she could pack up her stuff and maybe be ready before they woke up.

When they did wake up it wasn't that long after she had packed her things and was ready to leave, so when they were ready to leave, she had only just started really waiting for them. Everin was spending her short waiting time in the courtyard that she had been in earlier in the morning, taking in as much of the scenery as she could for the short time she had. Thorin was of course the first to wake up and be ready to leave, and found her in the courtyard just as fast. Silence followed the pair for a moment, the birds chirping and mumbles of still dreary Dwarves being the only noise between them. She tried not to look at him, what happened last night rerunning in her mind as she worried that the Dwarf leader was going to send her away, just as the Elf Lord had suggested.

But, the Dwarf surprised her as instead of telling her that she had to leave their company, he tossed her a sheathed sword, which she thankfully caught. One look told her immediately that this sword was of Dwarf make, being of sturdier and thicker metal that weighted quite a bit in her hands, since she had to use both to hold it. The Witch unsheathed the sword, holding it carefully as she inspected the blade, and recognized it immediately as the sword that Thorin had used earlier before he had gained the Elvin sword in the Troll Horde. She looked back to the Dwarf in confusion, wondering why he would give her a sword of his own.

"I've noticed that you're without a weapon, which would be a problem as the Mountains that we are heading towards are known for Goblins, and if you are to be joining us, I need to know that you can defend yourself. Of course when this venture is over, I'll want that blade back," Everin nodded quickly in understanding as she sheathed the sword again, tucking it away in her belt. She felt the weight of it as it was now strapped to her, but for some reason instead of feeling a little of balanced form being weighted down on one side, she felt as though it was oddly comfortable, and right.

"Thank you," The Witch wasn't sure if this was just a sign of fellow feeling on the harsh words of banishment that were said by the Elf Lord the other night, or if he was actually just giving her a sword so that she wasn't a liability in battle, but at the same time she didn't really care for the real reason. All she really focused on however, was the fact that he had given her his sword. Everin knew that the other Dwarves had extra swords that she could have been given, (Dwalin especially,) but for some reason or another, (that Everin decided not to ask after, for fear of losing her new weapon,) she was given his sword. The other Dwarves followed out after a time to meet up with their leader, waiting for his word before they did anything. They didn't fail to see the blade she now had on her belt, but didn't mention it as it was a choice of Thorin's, so it wasn't as if they could change his mind, even if they wanted to.

"We are heading off now, but be sure to keep your noise to a minimum; Elves have better hearing than we might like to believe," They moved quickly through Rivendell, being sure to avoid the most Elf packed places of the Homely House, making their way to the main bridge and getting past it easily enough. In fact it seemed a might to easy to the Witch, as if there were supposed to be something that was meant to stop them from leaving, but had apparently been stalled. Then of course, she noticed a little too late in time as they had already sort of left Rivendell, having stepped off the main bridge and beginning to climb up the rocky path leading towards the mountains. The thing she noticed was of course, the significant lack of the Grey Wizard that was meant to be coming with them.

"Where is Gandalf? Does he know we're leaving now?" The Dwarves looked back to Everin before Balin, who was in front of her, managed to answer her question after a time. And of course she was not happy in the slightest with what she was being told. The fact that she was now on her own was not exactly something she cared to hear, but all the same, she knew she would have to do so at some point, it was the reason she was going with them in the first place. Everin, after Balin had given his explanation, couldn't help but notice as they climbed higher over Rivendell, which was now very much below them, that Bilbo was constantly looking back behind him to the Homely House.

"Gandalf is going to be meeting up with us during our climb through the Mountains,"

The Witch did want to look back at the Homely House as well, but at the same time she knew no good feelings were going to come out of it. For now, she decided to just ignore the fact that she could no longer go back to Rivendell; instead she chose to think of it as she would whenever she was banished from a place, which was that she was just leaving for a time, and would possibly be back someday. Thorin managed to get the Hobbit's attention back to hiking up the mountain track, Everin moving just that much quicker to get away from the eyes of Rivendell, and hopefully, towards some better times.

* * *

**Please review, constructive criticism always welcome.**


	5. Chapter 5

_Why the Witch also Mithrandir?_

The White Council had passed by this point; both Lord Elrond and Saruman had both been and gone, their minds seemingly unchanged despite the best efforts and evidence on the Grey Wizard's part. It was only him and the Lady Galadriel left in the courtyard where they had had their meeting, the sun rising steadily over the ongoing heavens that remained above the Homely House of Rivendell, creating beautiful colors and lights searing across the deep blue sky. Mithrandir had a moment to think over the Lady Galadriel's question, since he knew that his answer was very much involved in the choice of the Witch still being involved in this venture.

_She makes me believe, in her own way of course, that things born with the intention of evil and surrounded with constant hate in this world, can still be pure and good, even if she doesn't realize that yet herself. I suppose that like Bilbo, Everin gives me courage and hope in a dying light. _

Lady Galadriel gave a small smile, which meant that this was apparently the correct answer.

* * *

They walked for many days, possibly weeks before ever reaching the mountains Thorin had warned Everin about in Rivendell; their nights spent awaiting any attack with even more caution as they had now stepped into this portion of the wild wide world, where even more packs Orcs or Goblins could be anywhere, everywhere or all around them. Everin had to admit though, despite that worry of an attack, she had never been happier over those few nights, as she got the chance to sleep in the trees once more, feeling comfortable again whenever she was on the highest branch in the tree, above the ground where it was easier and safer for her to be able to do her night watch. But of course, every other night she would climb down from her safe and comfortable tree branch for the night, and join the others to sleep on the ground. The Witch did this as she wanted to prove that she did trust them by this point not to stab her in her sleep, (not that she ever said they would, but she'd had the worry before she'd even met them on her own…) and to also signify that she wanted to be a real part of this company, Everin figured that this was probably the easier way to show it, rather than say anything embarrassing and all emotion based.

But of course the nights she slept on the ground, she was always more watchful and alert for any kind of danger, which was strange since she figured she should be just as alert even when she was up in the trees. the Dwarf Sword that Thorin had given her (which she had so 'cleverly' nicknamed Durin after remembering the Moria Orc story that Balin had told all those nights ago,) always being right by her side every night should she ever need it, which for some reason the Witch always felt as though she did and always should. Everin hadn't gotten around to asking after why Thorin had given her a sword of his own yet, and couldn't help but feel that she was not going to do so ever, especially since she was never given a chance thanks to the endless walking that they always seemed to do now.

During the daytime that they (as stated before,) continued to walk, Everin would every so often find herself wishing for the ponies to miraculously return once more, even if that did mean getting saddle sore, at least it beat the pain of walking for hours on end. Of course, the only person who ever verbally agreed to her on that fact was Bilbo, as the Dwarves just gritted and bared it, unlike herself of course. There wasn't that much talking between them all when they walked, leaving Everin to instead enjoy the rocky terrain Middle Earth was famous for, every so often though, she would be surprised by the additions of snow, or even at one point, a waterfall. She knew none of them were talking for one reason or another, most of her mind being convinced it was because they wanted to be on their guard, should anything happen. But then again, she didn't exactly know these Dwarves like the back of her hand, so there was really no telling what they were being so quiet about.

It was one of the nights that she spent sleeping on the ground, that she sort of listened in on something she hadn't truly meant to. Everin was just minding her own business, lying down on her bed roll and getting ready to sleep, Durin being right next to her head, and was about to fall into the last dregs of sleep, when she accidentally overheard a discussion between Thorin and Balin, who apparently had thought that everyone was asleep before they started talking. Everin wanted to ignore the conversation, and fall asleep like she had first planned, but it was just too interesting a discussion for her to pass up, so she just remained awake, but did not dare move.

"You've been awfully testy and quiet since we left Rivendell; I thought that you would be happier after leaving the Homely House Thorin," The two Dwarves were not sitting that far away from her, but her head was turned away from them so they couldn't see the whites of her eyes as she remained completely awake. She hears nothing of Thorin for a time, and thinks for a moment that he was actually trying to delay answering the question so he would not have to deal with it. However, The Dwarf eventually did relay what had happened on that night, and the discussion that went between the Elf Lord and Gandalf. Well, most of it anyway, as she noticed that Thorin had failed to mention what was said about her that night, and was thankful at the same time as he had apparently kept his promise.

"-He insulted the line of Durin, the names of my Father, and Grandfather. His suggestions towards the sickness that took them both, and my connection to being a possible candidate for that sickness… Were beyond insulting to not only my kin, but this company as well, and because of that we will not be returning to the Homely House again if we can help it."Everin could hear how hurt he was, how the words of Lord Elrond had cut into him, which was apparently a lot more than she had previously thought, which even then, she had thought he was pretty hurt over it. She couldn't imagine the names of her family being slandered in such a way, how it would have cut into her more than the words spat her way would. Balin didn't say anything much else to the King Under the Mountain for some time, so Everin figured that he was comforting the Dwarf during this time.

"But there was more said that night, wasn't there?" Balin was wiser than she gave him credit, but then again, Everin found that she really shouldn't underestimate Dwarves. However, there was a moment that she became a little hypocritical of herself right afterwards as she did underestimate Thorin, as she was worried that he would cave on his promise to her and tell Balin of her banishment and the words said about her. The King Under the Mountain however, rose to the plate again of proving her wrong and surprising her with what he said next. He sounded so diplomatic to her when he spoke, but she guessed that was the Kingly part of him showing.

"There was more said, but it was not about my kin. I have made a promise between the other witnesses to this conversation, so I cannot tell you what was said, nor whom it was about, that will be left to them to say when they feel that the time is right." Everin never doubted that Thorin was, or could be a King; it must have been the way he held himself together, ordered the group or even the tone of his voice when he spoke normally. He came off just very regal and refined to her, and just as Balin had said so many nights ago, he was someone that she could really follow if she were given the chance.

"I won't ask any more of it Laddie, I give thanks that you have told me this much," There was a shuffling sound, and in the corner of her eye Everin saw Balin lie down on his bedroll. Moments passed after the conversation in which Everin was wondering why she was still awake, before she finally started to let herself fall back to sleep. However, she was interrupted from that by Thorin speaking up through the thick silence of the night. It seemed as though the Dwarf was waiting until Balin had gone to sleep himself before speaking up again, and of course he was talking to her.

"Eavesdropping is not a common practice for a lady," The Witch sighed and sat up, knowing that she had been caught anyway and probably was caught sometime during the conversation beforehand. Everin did have the decency to look embarrassed and sorry about it, since she did know it was wrong of her to do it. She rubbed the back of her neck as she spoke, looking mostly at the ground as she did so. The Witch knew that she would have to keep her voice down as she spoke, as Bofur and Dwalin where on either sides of her, and she did know that Dwalin had pretty good hearing, and was a light sleeper.

"I'm sorry for listening in, it wasn't my place. But, thank you for keeping your promise," Thorin nodded and she went to lay back down again, but there was another question in her mind that she wanted answered, another question that she had coming from that night in Rivendell. Her question was apparently pretty obvious and easy to answer for the Dwarf, even though she thought that he would be sort of unsure about it, and probably would change his mind. In fact, that was the reason she had held back on asking this question over the days after they had left the Homely House, as she thought that he would change his mind after she asked it.

"Why… didn't you send me away, like Lord Elrond suggested?" She didn't look up at the Dwarf when she asked her question, her head remaining to look only at the ground beyond her bedroll. Everin did try not to sound as worried as she was, but of course it was apparent that she didn't hide it to well, her looking to the ground instead of at Thorin was not really helping anything either. Subconsciously, she picked up Durin, and placed it on her lap, since she always felt that much safer whenever she had it around. The Dwarf leader did not fail to notice this, but did not comment on any way as he still had to answer her easy question.

"I do not require the help of an Elf to decide who can and cannot be a part of this company."

"But what about, you know… the reason he was saying that I shouldn't come with you?" Everin had a decent sense that she was not the only one in the company that had a habit of eavesdropping, and made sure as to kindly skip over any words that could lead directly into what she was actually talking about. Thorin was clever enough to catch on to this, and also made sure with his reply to skip over those blunt terminologies himself. While Everin appreciated the wisdom and logic behind the Dwarf's answer, she couldn't help but be worried at the same time, and so she made a proposition to him after a gap of silence.

"You haven't done anything like that as of yet, and that is why you are still here."

…

"I have to ask you, and I wouldn't do this unless I knew that you could, but if I go too far, and I can't stop myself before something dangerous happens… Can I rely on you to stop me?" Silence again, which was exactly what Everin had expected. She had made sure to make herself clear as she slightly unsheathed the sword in her lap, and even looked the Dwarf right in the eye as she spoke with such a flat tone that was not like her, since she was more serious than she might have been before this point. Thorin needed a moment to think it over, but eventually did answer as he knew that she was going to need his absolute word on this, and not for him to make her second guess on whether or not he would.

"You have my word that if you ever go too far, and you are unable to control yourself, I will stop you as you have asked me to, but only if you attack others in this company. One injury to them from you in that state, and I will not hesitate." Everin nodded, and placed the Durin sword back next to Bedroll, giving the Dwarf one last word of gratitude and a weak smile before she lay back down to sleep, leaving Thorin alone to his thoughts for the rest of his night watch time. He had been a little unsettled at how thankful she had been for him promising that if she ever lost control, that he would kill her, but then again he guessed that she was genuinely afraid of the fact that it could happen at any time, even though they both knew of Gandalf's claim that she did have control over it. This meant that she truly had neither trust nor confidence in herself that she could hold back, and control it if she wanted.

"Thank you," She slept more soundly that night than she possibly did for a long time, since she knew now that someone was watching her now, and she didn't feel so alone. In a strange kind of way at least, but it was still nice.

* * *

The next day didn't seem any different to Everin, which she was thankful for as she was worried that Thorin would have been watching like a not so subtle hawk. None of the others ever commented to her or the Dwarf leader of anything that would have made them suspicious of any eavesdropping, so at least Everin had the comfort of believing that their discussion had only transpired between the two of them. But then again there weren't many situations where they could talk, since they were apparently too focused on walking during the day and there was the fact that they no longer seemed to stop for training. Whenever they did stop it was only to camp, in which they were too exhausted to chat. Thorin was the reason behind this as he didn't seem to want to stop during the daytime, and would push them until later into the night.

As the days went on, the environment once again changed. The familiar grass and slightly rocky terrain turning quickly to full on mountains without a full plant or tree in sight, just snow and on occasion, harsh bursts of rain. The path changed as well over the mountain lands, getting thinner and thinner as they edged their ways across the mountain face, having to squish together thanks to the lack of room. Everin shivered as the rain poured down, once again being thankful for her cloak at this time. It wasn't really the rain that was bothering the group, but the fact that it made the already difficult and thin path, slippery, meaning that at many a time they nearly fell over the edge, but were thankfully grabbed by the others around them.

Bilbo and Everin were the two that sadly did this the most, as unlike the Dwarves; they were unfamiliar with such climbing and dangerous actions that came with climbing through Mountain passes. The Hobbit only seemed more and more discouraged each time that he nearly fell and needed to be saved, which was probably because he was closer to the front of the group, and could see Thorin's discouraging expression more and better than Everin did whenever she slipped up. But then again, she sort of made up for her mistakes by often grabbing some of the Dwarves and Bilbo when they slipped themselves.

"We must find shelter!" The Witch was sort of sure that was what Thorin had yelled behind him after Bilbo slipped again, but then again the environment wasn't exactly volume efficient for any conversation, even if she was yelling at the top of her voice to the Dwarf next to her. But then again, the boulder that soared past their heads and crashed into an alcove right above their heads wasn't exactly very helpful in the effort of being heard over the roaring storm. The Dwarves yelled out in surprise at this and quickly pushed themselves against the rock face, Everin having to be shoved back as she was too busy wondering how the rock managed to do that instead of worrying over her own safety.

"This is no Thunderstorm! It's a Thunderbattle!" And that description that was only just heard above the wind was exactly right, since Everin didn't know what else she could call two giants made of stones ripping their way out of mountain sides and starting to hit each other until they fell apart. The company watched with wide eyes at the occasion, since it was apparently meant to be the stuff of legend only, but was being proven true right in front of them. Bofur moved forward to get a closer look, Everin meanwhile grabbing the back of his coat in fear as he did so since she didn't want him to fall. And again it seemed as though she had to be one of the ones to yank him out of danger just in time as she and Bifur managed to push him back against the Rock wall, the Witch's arm moved so that now it was out in front of him, holding him in place and stopping him from moving forward again.

"Don't do that again," She whispered through the cold and wet material of his hat, which was shoved so 'gracefully' into her face, blocking her vision of anything to her left. Everin wasn't sure if he had even heard her, but apparently he seemed to get the message anyway and didn't move forward again, her arm kind of stopping him from doing that anyway as it was now gripping the front of his shirt and coat, the knuckles white through her already pale fists thanks to the cold. Everin liked to believe in that moment that that was the worst of the storm they were in, that all they had to do was stay where they were, and the Stone Giants were just going to ignore them completely.

But it seemed at that moment that the universe didn't want them to just be spectators to this event, as there suddenly appeared large cracks in the rock wall that she was clinging onto for dear life, cracks that grew in record time before wrenching the company away from the mountain altogether, the part of the rock wall that she and the others were now attached to apparently being both of the knee joints of another Stone Giant. Everin figured that this would probably had been one of the better moments to scream and cry like a ten year old girl again, but for some reason she was to overcome with shock in their current position, that she managed to utter was a small squeak of fear.

Looking to her left, since her right was still blocked by the material of Bofur's hat, she saw the rest of the company on the Stone Giant's other knee, trying to yell to them through the roaring rain and wind, but sadly their voices were faint and few. They managed to get to safety though, as their current mode of transportation was shoved against the mountain again, meaning that they managed to get safely back to the actual Mountain cliff face. Everin's side of it however, were not so lucky as they were still stuck on the Stone Giant's knee, clinging for dear life for those few seconds they were given to do so.

A sudden impact that Everin didn't get the chance to see, made their Stone Giant stumble, then finally fall at last, defeated. The way it fell however, meant that they were being moved very quickly back towards the mountain's original cliff face once again, except of course, it was much too fast for the Witch's liking. Grabbing the hands of Bofur and Bilbo who was next to her, she braced herself for whatever might happen next. She squeezed her eyes shut as she felt herself being shoved forwards, which was coupled with a brief and sweeping feeling of groundlessness before a hand was suddenly ripped from her's and she was thrown back to gravity and ground once more.

* * *

When she opened her eyes again she found that she was actually lying on top of one or two Dwarves who had broken her fall, her hand still squeezing the pulse out of Bofur's who was lying next to her. There was a brief sigh of relief, before reality made another hit at her and she remembered that she had been holding more than one hand before that apparent leap of faith. Bofur realized this too after he helped her to her feet, and started calling wildly for the location of their Burglar. Everin felt her heart stop in those few minutes as she grew afraid that because she might not have had a tighter grip on his hand, the Hobbit could have fallen over the edge and be long gone.

"Where's Bilbo? Where's the Hobbit!" They found him not a second after Bofur had spoken, dangling off the cliff face and hanging on for dear life. Everyone all ran forwards to help, just as his fingers began to lose their grip on the slippery rocks. It seemed fruitless in those few seconds however, as one of his hands came loose and he couldn't seem to be able to reach the hands of Everin and the Dwarves offering to pull him to safety. Just then, Everin felt a slight rush of air right by her, and looked down again to see Thorin helping the Hobbit back up to safety. But of course they were given one last scare as Thorin started losing his grip, and would have fallen to if it weren't for Dwalin immediately jumping out and snatching him before he could do so.

Everin felt the Dwarf leader's hand involuntarily grab at her shirt and cloak in a desperation to get back to ground, and she grabbed that hand while moving backwards, giving him the extra pull to get back on his feet. She was of course shocked at that moment that he'd grabbed at her so desperately, but she never said anything about it so as to not make the Dwarf feel awkward over a sudden reflex. As soon as the King was on his feet once more, he did a quick scan of the entire group, seeing if anyone was missing, when it became apparent that thankfully no one was lost in this strange event, he fixed Bilbo with a stinging glare. Everyone one else seemed just relieved that they had all survived, and started the slow and careful task of getting on their feet as well without falling.

"I thought we'd lost our Burglar," Dwalin exclaimed as Bofur and Balin helped him to his feet, brushing off any non-existing dirt. This was apparently the wrong thing to say at that time as all it did was give Thorin a chance to say something against the Hobbit, who as still looking pale and terrified at the thought of how close to actual death he had been. Everin was still kneeling by the Hobbit's side, and looked back to Thorin with clear unamusement at what he had said, since it was really not helping Bilbo's already upset mind to calm down.

"He's been lost ever since he left home, he should never have come. He has no place amongst us." She never did get the chance to have a word in after he had spoken however, as Thorin turned and continued to move on, an unspoken gesture that they should all do the same. Thankfully, (or rather coincidentally,) there was large mountain cave not that far away from where they were; in fact it was only a few meters really. Thorin and the rest of the Dwarves went inside first to get a good look of the place, just to see if there was anything in there before them. Everin was left outside in the pouring rain with Bilbo for that short span of time, and while she spent it trying to comfort the Hobbit, he made it clear that he really did not want to talk.

"Please leave me be Everin," The Hobbit sounded lonelier and more hurt than she remembered him ever being, so she did as he asked and walked forwards to the cave entrance, the Hobbit following her in after a short while. The Witch shivered at the sudden lack of rain around her as the biting cold finally seemed to set into her skin. She took off her once again sopping wet cloak, wringing it out back at the entrance of the cave before packing it away again, her bedroll apparently not faring all that much better, but was still a little drier than the wet garment. Thorin ordered for there to be no fires and for everyone to just get some sleep at that moment as they were apparently meant to take off again in the earliest time of morning, something Everin didn't like as she remembered that they were supposed to wait for Gandalf. Apparently she wasn't the only one who remembered this as Balin asked after it not a second later.

"We were to wait in the mountains until Gandalf joined us, that was the plan," Everin moved a little closer to their conversation as she set up her sleeping area, which was as far from the entrance as she could manage to get, since she did not want any of the continuing rain to whip up and go through the cave entrance, especially since her bedroll was already soaked through. As she listened to the two Dwarves talk however, Everin was growing to dislike it more and more as that short period of time seemed to drag on. There was a part of her that wanted to confront the Dwarf leader, not just over the fact that apparently he was disregarding the help that the Grey Wizard had given them that he couldn't even pay Gandalf back by simply waiting for him (especially since that help saved their lives,) but also the point of what he had said to the Hobbit not a few moments ago, that apparently was still effecting Bilbo as he said not a word to anyone for the rest of the night. But of course she decided to keep her thoughts to herself for this night at least, since it seemed as though it had been pretty emotional and trying already for all of them, there was no need to dump an argument to top it all off. It wasn't as if she had had the energy to manage a fight/discussion like that anyway. Everin did decide that she was not going to let this go however, and would bring it up later in the morning if she could.

"Plans change. Bofur you have night watch first, Everin will be after you." The Witch's shoulders slumped just as Bofur's did, but they were (as said before,) too tired to argue. Everin walked back to her Bedroll and dragged it towards Bofur's so it would be easier for them both. As she lay down on the roll she smiled up at Bofur, who was sitting just above her head, and smiled back to her. It was a little hard to sleep for time that she was allowed that night, and it didn't actually have anything to do with there being no trees, but the fact that it was still storming like hell itself outside. The Witch just dealt with it though, as she didn't mind all that much, since she was supposed to wake up in a little while to take up the night watch anyway.

So she sort of spent that night in strange sort of a half sleep state, tossing and turning every so often whenever there was a louder thunder strike, as if her semi-conscious mind was figuring that the Thunderbattle was still taking place. But eventually the thunder did pass, leaving only the rain and a no longer restless Witch. Though during the time she was constantly moving around and trying to get comfortable, Everin swore something or someone had grabbed her hand, and had been squeezing it to comfort her, but then again she wasn't sure as it was gone as quickly as it had been there, or at least it seemed that way.

There was a sudden and unexpected movement from across the cave that stirred Everin's concentration, fully waking her up again as she saw through slightly still bleary eyes, Bilbo getting up to his feet, his pack on his back and walking stick in hand. She wanted to stop him, but didn't really know what words she could say or what she could do that would convince him to stay. Everin had a pretty good idea as to why he was leaving, since she would have to be blind not to notice the distain that Thorin threw his way every so often. Guilt rose up in her again as she thought over the times that she could have defended the Hobbit and taken his side, but for some reason she didn't. Thankfully she was not alone in seeing this and wanting to stop it, as Bofur quickly got up and ran after him, asking where he was going.

"Where do you think you're going?" Everin didn't sit up, she just remained lying on the floor for some reason she couldn't explain, and was once again eavesdropping on another conversation. But the Witch wasn't sure if she was alone in this action, since she could almost see the awake form of Thorin, listening closely to the discussion between Bilbo and Bofur. She could see the guilt growing on his face as they continued to talk of why the Hobbit was leaving, something that Everin had been expecting, but she shared as well thanks to her before mentioned lack of defending the Hobbit.

"Back to Rivendell," Well, the fact that the Hobbit was returning to a place where she was trying to ignore the fact that she could never return there certainly didn't help to make her feel any better at that moment. Everin sat up a little bit; with thankfully neither Bilbo nor Bofur noticed her doing so since there was a small rock wall between them and where she was lying down for the night. Thorin noticed though, and she knew that since where he was lying gave him a pretty good sight on what she was doing (which was probably a decision on his part so he could watch her like he had promised,) from across the cave.

"No-no you can't turn back now eh? You're part of the company, you're one of us," The Hobbit of course did not believe Bofur's words, and Everin couldn't really blame him for that since she kind of felt the same way. She had a good feeling that there was always going to be that slight gap between the Dwarves and herself and Bilbo, which Everin of course knew was no real conscious decision on their part at all. After all, the Dwarves were all brothers, cousins and friends to one another, meaning that they were all closely related in some way or knew each other very well, some of them possibly from childhoods, making them closer to a strange kind of family than anything else. Meanwhile she and Bilbo were just outsiders, dragged into this quest by a sort of trusted and mutual friend of theirs for one reason or another.

"I'm not though am I? Thorin said I should never have come and he was right. I'm not a Took, I'm a Baggins, I don't know what I was thinking. I should never have run out of my door," The Witch didn't even need to look over at Dwarf King to know that he was now at his full level of guilt for the words he had spoken earlier that night, just as she had predicted. And as much as she hated to admit it, there was a part of her that agreed with the Hobbit that this kind of venture truly was too dangerous for someone like him, but then again that was the same part of her mindset that doubted herself as well, so there could be something said of that.

"You're homesick, I understand,"

"No you don't understand none of you do, you're Dwarves and Everin's a Witch! You're use to this life to living on the road, never settling in one place, not belonging anywhere!" There was a silence through the cave after Bilbo had spoken as Everin slowly drew her knees up to her chest and began hugging herself, either that or she was trying to physically hold in the hurt and sting she had received from the Hobbit's words. Moisture prickled the very edges of her eyes, but she rubbed them away as quickly as possible and took a silent, but deep breath, she was not going to let mere words cut her down where weapons had previously and always failed. Thorin saw her reaction; there was no denying that, which was the reason that she had wisely chose not to look in the Dwarf's direction at all while Bofur and Bilbo continued to chat.

"You're right, we don't belong anywhere," But they did belong together, all of them, and they all had to stick this out as a group; she knew that more than anything (even if her head was saying completely different). The Witch unraveled herself from her little pity party of self hugging and peeked a little around the rock wall she was so cowardly hiding behind, watching the small space of silence between the guilty Hobbit and sad Dwarf. Bofur was surprisingly the one to break down that metaphorical wall of silence between them, and patted Bilbo on the shoulder before wishing him off.

"I wish you all the luck in the world, I really do," Everin wanted to jump out then, to demand that the Hobbit properly think this decision through, or at least wait until morning before he went off on his own. It was still pouring outside, the rocks were still slippery and dangerous, he didn't know the way, and even then it would take ages for him to get back there if he did manage survive the climb down the mountain, but more importantly, and she couldn't stress this enough, she didn't want him to go. But for some reason, may it be the fact that she hated emotional confrontations or discussions, or that she was just a selfish coward, she didn't do that. Instead she remained hiding behind her small rock wall, feeling useless about herself as Bilbo turned to finally exit the cave on his own.

"What's that?" Everin didn't look at what the Dwarf was speaking however, as she was more preoccupied with a strange noise coming from underneath them. She looked down and sure enough, there were lines starting to appear in the sand they were sleeping on. Everything moved very slowly in that one second as the lines connected in her head and she jumped to her feet, Thorin following her example as they started yelling for the others to get up as well, to run or do something other than lie on the now absolutely dangerous floor. They all sat up of course, but by that point it was a little too late as the lines in the sand had made their way across the whole cave floor.

"Get up, it's a trap get up!" And that as the only and last thing she got to yell before the ground seemingly disappeared underneath them all, and they began to fall. Everin never got a good look at what was happening around her since she seemed to be spinning this way and that, crashing into a Dwarf every once in a while before drifting off somewhere else. All she did know for absolute certain was that they had been falling for both a ridiculous amount of time and length, before finally for the second time that night, she reached gravity point once again, but of course landed on top of some poor Dwarf, that looking down of course had to be Thorin.

She was about to immediately crawl off and apologize profusely for landing on top of him like that, even if she couldn't really have helped it, when something grabbed at her wrist and yanked her away roughly before she could do so. Everin winced at the sharp nails digging into the skin of her wrist, and turned to punch whatever ungodly creature was causing her such pain, only for her fist to be caught by the other creature's hand before she could land a hit, effectively restraining her and also giving her a good look at the animal that had apparently captured them, it's fellow disgusting brethren rushing at the Dwarves and Bilbo before they even reach for their weapons.

Goblins.

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**Please review, constructive criticism always welcome.**


	6. Chapter 6

"Get off of me!"

They were dragged, shoved and pulled towards their apparent destination by the horrid Goblins, Everin and the Dwarves doing everything they could to fight them off every step of the way. The Witch did notice after some pushing and shoving time had passed, that Bilbo didn't appear to be with them anymore. She tried to go back, to fight off the hands that were shoving her forwards so that she could look for the Hobbit, but she didn't get the chance as they were too strong in moving her forwards. Everin was lucky enough that her gender, nor factor that she was a Witch, had apparently not been noticed by the Goblins as of yet as they moved her and the Dwarves onwards, since she knew their reaction and treatment of her would be much different. The big difference being that she would have been killed, or much worse, right on sight.

"Well it could always be worse," She muttered to herself as her arms were nearly pulled out of their sockets form the endless barrage of ongoing attack to move forwards, "They could be singing." It seemed like the perfect night for the universe to be intentionally cruel to this company as just as Everin was finished muttering under her breath, a garbled and unintelligible sound that barley really passed for actual music teared its way through the open space of hearing. It was so horrible and tasteless that some of the Dwarves, Everin included, stop struggling for a time just to see if they could cover their ears to block out the noise, but of course that action was proven futile as the music continued unabated.

_I feel a song, coming on,_

The voice rumbled through the strange area that was filled with Goblins, being deeper and harsher on the ears than any of the other Goblins screeches and cries from around them. Everin winced just that much more at what the voice was stating, her hands still covering her ears as they were only lead closer and closer to the voice as this horrid attack of her hearing sinuses continued. All she could do was hope, and pray that that thing, whatever it was as they apparently not close enough to see it yet, was not going to sing. And yet again, the universe proved that it just plain didn't seem to like her at all tonight.

_Clap snap, the black crack,_

_Grip, grab, pinch and nab,_

_Batter and beat,_

_Make em' stammer and squeak!_

_Pound, pound, far underground,_

_Down, down, down to Goblin Town,_

They finally got a good look at the horrid creature that sung so foully, and Everin wasn't surprised in the least that this disgusting thing was apparently meant to be their King, it towered over all else and was probably the ugliest of the lot. The already over powering stench of Goblin was not made any better by this thing's inclusion, and the Witch's squeamish stomach was already flipping and ready to say hello again to her last meal. Looking over to the others, she could see that of course they weren't as squeamishly put off as her, but they were certainly disgusted, more than likely at the state of the horror that they called music than anything else. Stop there however, and as they drew nearer, he only seemed to be more enthusiastic in his terrible singing abilities.

_With a swish and a smack,_

_And a whip and a crack,_

_Everybody talks when they're on the rack,_

_Pound, pound far underground,_

_Down, down, down to Goblin Town!_

The King slammed his strange, well what he later called 'prong' on the ground for a beat, while the Goblins around him had to skirt this way and that to save themselves being hit or squished by the action. By this time Everin and the rest of the group were finally standing before this horrid thing, having to wait until it was finished with its abomination of a song and dance, before they could do anything. Every attempt they made to get away or fight back was met with an equal reaction of violence, so the Dwarves eventually had the sense to stop fighting and just wait for a better moment where such a reaction could actually be helpful.

_Hammer and tongs, get out your knockers and gongs,_

_You won't last long on the end of my prongs!_

The Goblin King stabbed his weapon into one of his many subjects, which immediately got stuck on the end of it. As it squealed and shouted it was swung far above their heads, before being thrown over the edge of the rotting floorboards that held this Goblin Throne together. The song still didn't stop there, it just went on and on for what felt like an eternity of bad music and even worse dancing, the neat refusing to pick up, even though the King was singing faster and with more emotion. Everin had to take a step back to keep away from the prongs, even though she was behind a few of the Dwarves, who also joined her in that step back.

_Crash, clash, crush and smash,_

_Bang, break, shiver and shake,_

_You can yammer and yelp but there ain't no help,_

_Pound, pound, far underground,_

_Down, down, down to Goblin Town!_

Finally, the song ended as The Goblin King did a strange twirl in his dance, everyone needing to duck when his large disgusting hands swept just over their hands. As soon as it was over there was a deep silence as the end of the horrid tune was still echoing through the rock walls of the Mountain they lived in, bouncing back to them which only made it sound worse with the echo. The large Goblin turned back to his throne, stepping again on his subjects in order to get back up there, the harsh squeal the creature that was trodden under foot made Everin wince. The silence was broken by the large Goblin once it was back in its chair, looking down at the Dwarves and Everin with a strange sort of boredom.

"Catchy isn't it? It's one of my own compositions." Well, that did explain quite a bit, but then again it was also expected since it was just as ugly a song as the King himself. Everin still hadn't been spotted, and made extra sure that that was something that didn't happen by hiding behind Dwalin to the best of her ability. Goblins would look at her, but of course they were apparently too stupid to tell her apart from the Dwarves, which also raised the question of exactly how many of these goblins were female, and if there were any female Goblins…

"That's not a song, it's an abomination!" Thank the heavens for Balin knocking her mind out of that scary thought pattern; it was getting really weird and kind of scary. Some of the Goblins growled at the older Dwarf's words, and were about to make some kind of violent act for sure, but were stopped by the Goblin King just waving it away with his own bored reply. After he had spoken, the Goblins found it a perfect time to rip their weapons from their belts, Everin protesting angrily when they tore the Durin sword from her and threw it so carelessly to the ground.

"Abomination, mutations, deviations, that's all your gonna find down here," Apparently the sight of the weapons burned a new anger in the large Goblin, as he lifted himself again out of his chair to leer down at the Company. His glare was apparently meant to make them quiver, but they continued to stand tall, unabated nor frightened by the disgusting creature. The Goblin King bellowed out his next words, possibly in an attempt to actually frighten them again, but of course was met with little success, and silence following his thundering words before one of the many Goblins answered the question instead.

"Who would be so bold as to come armed into my kingdom? Spies? Thieves? Assassins?!"

"Dwarves your malevolence, found them on the front porch," Everin was not liking the sudden look of recognition in the Goblin king's eyes, as if he had been expecting something like them to fall down to this horrid place of his, or, he'd already heard word first of Dwarves in the area. The Goblins around them also seemed a little more excited in their prisoners as they apparently knew something as well, but were obviously not going to tell. There was a moment where the Goblin King gave another good look at his new prisoners, then quickly ordered his subjects.

"Well don't just stand there, search them! Every Crack, every crevice!" No amount of yelling and trying to fight back could stop their hands from searching over her for any hidden weapons, which of course they made a sound of annoyance (possibly,) when they couldn't find anything else on her, and roughly pushed her back a few steps before moving on the Dwarf next to her. The search was interrupted when the Goblins heard a large sound of clattering metal at the King Goblin's feet. Everin craned her neck over Dwalin's shoulder to see that they had found the bag they carried their utensils in, and was a little surprised to see extra belongings in there that she didn't remember having in there before.

"It is my belief, great King, that they are in league with Elves!" The Goblin that had spoken handed a candelabrum that she remembered from Rivendell to the Goblin King, who gave one look at it before making a disgusted noise and commenting on it before throwing it down the large chasm just under their feet. There was a moment where everyone (sans Everin,) looked to Nori, who gave a little shrug and mumbled something about 'keepsakes'. Well, it was apparent after that, that the search for any more weapons was now over, and the questions for them started up.

"What are you doing in these parts, speak!" Thorin was about to make a step forward, but was stopped by Oin, of all people, who said that he was apparently going to handle this. Everin wasn't much of a talker, her being silent for most of this journey being a great example of that, but even she knew that no amount of talking was seriously expected to get them all out of here alive. The Goblin King already knew this as well, and reacted with apparent anger as he must have thought the Dwarves were taking him for a fool, when he held all of the cards in this moment.

"No tricks, I want the truth! Warts and all," And of course it was obvious that the disgusting creature would know all about warts and such things, his face not exactly a winner for any beauty pageants. Everin couldn't help but feel a little better after thinking such insults of the Goblin King, it seemed to relax a few of her nerves to be cocky, but of course only in her mind, she would be dead in hot minute for even daring to say it aloud to the creature. Oin looked genuinely confused at what the large Goblin was saying, and replied with a simple indication of that confusion.

"You're going to have to speak up, your boys flattened my trumpet," Oin held the hearing aid up for all to see that yes, in fact it was squashed beyond repair. The Goblin King didn't care for this however, as he just saw it as another jab to the fact that they weren't showing fear of him like he had wanted them to, and went to attack the Dwarf, shouting that he was going to do much more than just flatten the ear trumpet in Oin's hands. Everin was about to move forward to protect the Older dwarf, when Bofur beat her too it, standing in front of him to gain the ugly creature's attention, all the while aware that Everin had grabbed his hand for some reason, as if she were expecting another attempt of violence and knew that she would have to pull him back to safety again. While there was that small second of Bofur moving forwards and Everin grabbing his hand, she managed to get out a few words to him, hoping that he had heard.

"What are you doing?!" She hissed, but that was all she got a chance to say as Bofur spoke over her to the huge Goblin, trying his best to sound convincing over something that he was making up on the fly. Of course that didn't work, but as said before, it was obvious that talking was not going to save them from this at all. The Goblin King was sitting back in it's throne once more, not looking the slightest bit convinced by Bofur's words. Everin was watching the ugly creature, waiting for whatever move it might make after the Dwarf was finished speaking.

"Shut Up!" Bofur was interrupted from his explanation by the Goblin King getting out of it's throne again, causing the subjects that were under it's throne to again be flattened as the foul creature moved forward to apparently attack Bofur. But for some reason that never happened, and Bofur stayed his ground, even though Everin was attempting to drag him away from the Goblins around them, his Dwarvish pride wouldn't allow her to hide him away from an enemy. The Goblin King again demanded for the true answer from the group, it's voice again attempting to thunder and create fear where none was to be found.

"What are doing in these parts? Speak!" But they did not; instead the Dwarves continued to stand together as a silent company, staring up at the Goblin King, daring it for the next move. Everin supposed there was a silent power struggle going on between the King and Dwarves that was unspoken for the sakes of dignity and wanting to win that struggle, the first to speak of it apparently being the one to lose. Finally it seemed that the games were over, as the Goblin King lost its patience one last time, it's voice no longer needing to be raised for the threat to be carried through.

"If they will not talk! We'll make them squawk! Bring out the Mangler! Bring up the Bone breaker!" It looked back to the group, searching amongst their faces before focusing on Ori. Everin and others didn't fail to notice this, the Witch moving quickly to the younger Dwarf's side along with his brothers to protect and give him confidence as the Goblin King bellowed down at him, "Start with the youngest!" The Goblins around them looked to Ori and were about to move forward themselves, no doubt to start grabbing at or attacking the poor Dwarf when they were thankfully and quickly interrupted.

"Wait!" Everin looked over to the Dwarf King as he moved forwards, and suddenly she seemed to understand exactly what Gandalf must feel, by how hard it seemed to be to watch over so many 'stubborn' Dwarves. Thorin moved forwards, the rest of the group looking as though they wanted to stop him, but knew that for some reason, they couldn't. Everin however, wanted to interrupt him, and went to stop him as well, feeling as though that was going to be her ineffective job for as long as she was here, but was stopped by Nori and Bifur quickly grabbing at her forearms before the Goblins could notice her.

"Well, well, well, look who it is. Thorin, son of Thrain, son of Thror, King under the mountain," The Goblin King bowed low, but all of them knew that it was just a sarcastic act on it's part, especially since the Goblins around them were unsuccessfully attempting to hide their ear piercing laughter under their breaths. Thorin obviously saw this as well, but didn't say much about it, as he was just waiting for what stinging words that the gigantic Goblin would say next to attempt to wound his pride and the pride of his kin. The creature again did not disappoint, it's voice no longer amused as it had been, but now just sarcastic and sharp.

"Oh but I'm forgetting you don't have a mountain, and you're not a king. Which makes you, nobody really," And wound their pride it did, as the Dwarves that were a moment ago trying to stop Everin from taking a step forwards, now all looked as though they were ready to do the same. The Witch looked to their leader, watching his face change for that single moment, just as it had all those nights ago when the story of Azog was told, but just like then as well it set back into stone before the Goblins could see it. The Goblin King had a thought in that moment, and grinned back down to Thorin as it spoke again, the humor in it's voice sounding sour and rotted out to the ears of the Dwarves and Witch.

"I know someone, who would pay a pretty price for your head. Just a head, nothing attached. Perhaps you know of who I speak? An old enemy of yours… A pale Orc, astride a White Warg," The Witch's insides seemed to tighten in those few moments, and that was just form the horrified whispers she had heard of the creature over the years, she wondered and looked to see what the reactions would be of those who had seen the Pale Orc. However, instead of fear like she had, they were clearly angry, Thorin especially. The King Under the Mountain (as that was what Everin knew him as, no matter what the Goblin King said,) spoke with a weight of fury and despair in his voice, as if demanding that the Goblin admit what he had said was untrue.

"Azog the Defiler was destroyed, he was slain in battle long ago," But as much as it sounded as though he were demanding that the truth be revealed as a lie, Everin couldn't help but feel as though it were also a denial, as if he almost expected his enemy to still be breathing in this world, he just hoped that wasn't true. The Goblin King found this even more amusing, as it had finally found a way to wound the Dwarf group and instill some kind of fear in them, even if it wasn't really from the foul creature itself.

"So you think his defiling days are done, do you? Send word to the Pale Orc, tell him I have found his prize," The ordered Goblin shot off into the darkness of the mountain cavern they were in, Everin hopes sinking even further than it already had as it disappeared into the black. The Goblin King turned it's attention back to the group in front of it, showing them the yellowed cracked tombstones that were meant to be it's horrid teeth. Everin held back a noise of disgust, not wanting to give the Goblins any satisfaction that it was affecting her in any way.

"Now where were we? Ah yes, bring forth the youngest!" The Goblins roared with glee that the torture was finally about to begin. Everin was still by Ori thankfully, so she managed to react quickly before any of the Dwarves could stop her from dragging the younger of them behind her and beating away the hands trying to grab at him. It was finally at this time that she seemed to be revealed, after all no one could really miss the lines on her arms when she was using those said limbs to smack away those that tried to get to Ori. The Goblin King's voice rang out, somehow managing to get the Goblins to move away so that it could have a closer look, its large head lowering down to her level to stare at the lines on her skin.

"And not just a Nobody King, we have a Witch amongst their ranks as well!" It boomed, the reactions of the Goblins around them being a mixed bag. Some looked ready to attack her, while others shied away from her, hissing in defense as they thought she might attack them at any moment, only to find that she would not. The Goblin King itself didn't seem all that afraid or angry; in fact it was once again amused as it went back to it's throne once more, peering down at Everin as she was suddenly in the spotlight, the other Dwarves, even Thorin, apparently now forgotten and deemed unimportant.

"And what would a Witch being doing in the company of Dwarf Scum?" Everin said nothing, but looked the foul creature right in its small piggish eyes, her hand still holding Ori's, who was thankfully behind her. She felt anger at the Goblin King's words for the Dwarves, and for some reason felt as though it was natural for her to defend them. Her voice was low and angered, her glare never leaving it's intended target as the Goblins around her laughed and jeered at the group as it had been doing since they arrived here, but still she could be heard over the din, even if she knew that talking would do nothing.

"Leave them alone," It was as ineffective as she knew it would be, as it only made them laugh more, the booming laughter of the Goblin King being the most heard and ear piercing of all of them. The larger Goblin didn't move from it's throne as it replied, a sick curiosity laced not so subtly in its voice as it replied to her failure to be intimidating. It's subjects looked back to her with that same look that was in the tone of that foul creature's voice, peering at her curiously. The Dwarves however, were completely furious and struggled against their guards as they yelled out at the foul creature that was called King. Everin however, was not that affected and seemed to be able to shrug it off a lot easier than the rest of the company.

"Protective of them aren't you? But you must be considering you are the only woman in a group of men … Perhaps that is the part you play… after all, even scum has needs." The Witch remained silent after the three words she had spoken before the insult, apparently unconcerned with defending herself and her name as much as defending the rest of the company. The Dwarves did feel and think differently of course, as that comment riled them up even more than beforehand and they shouted and cursed at the giant Goblin. With a bark of laughter, the Goblin King continued, as it seemed that she was not going to directly reply to anything slanderous being thrown in her direction.

"Nevertheless Witch, we have a busy schedule to fill, step away from the youngest and I might just let you suffer last." But she did not move from her place, continuing to hold Ori's hand and protect him from the Goblins that made their attempts to grab at him. She spoke again, her declaration creating a pause in the actions of the Goblins as they looked to their King for an order on what they should do. The foul creature that remained sitting on it's throne looked as though it were thinking it over, to just to drag out the torture of the moment for the Dwarves that were still vehemently struggling and shouting, except this time to the Witch and not the Goblins around them.

"I want to take his place! Let me go first!" Their reactions were immediate of course, as well as expected. The Dwarves were pushed away from her after she had spoken, the grip on Ori's hand finally broken as he and his brothers were yanked away. She felt a little less courageous without that, but still managed to stand in her now empty space on the wooden platform without a tremble of fear in her, despite the mess of emotions she might have contained inside. Everin wanted to do this, since she hoped to delay the inevitable for the youngest of their group, and, if she could manage to convince the horrid King, perhaps delay the punishments of the others as well. Their voices were somewhat hard to hear over the din of Goblins roaring and laughter, but still there were times she could hear the company, yelling to her in a desperate attempt to delay what they never had the control over in the first place.

"Evie no!"

"Don't do this Everin!"

"Leave her alone! Don't touch her!"

However, the Goblin King ignored them and made it's decision, and gestured to the two Goblins by it's throne that weren't currently being squashed underfoot. They obeyed and grabbed her arms, just to stop her running off if she tried it, not that she would since there wasn't really anywhere she could run to. A moment of silence passed as Everin wondered why something hadn't happened yet. The foul being glared down at her for those moments, a disturbing smirk placed across it's face all the while. Then suddenly, the gap of nothing was broken by a sudden stinging, heated pain lashing its way across her back and tearing through the fabric of her shirt and material she used for her chest.

Ill-expecting of the whip to come into play in her torture at this time, she let out a horrified scream before she could hold it in and save face, her knees buckling, but she didn't fall yet and remained standing for the next attack, this time ready for the pain. She was not aware of the Dwarves any more as the whipping continued, only hearing her choked cries of pain that she fought to keep in, and the crack of the whip as it met with her skin. It seemed like an eternity as this went on, the whip darting across her back and shoulders before finally at her legs, causing her to fall to her knees, feeling the strain on her arms as they were being nearly pulled out of their sockets by the Goblins holding her down. But the Goblin that was attacking her did not let up until what felt like a long time after that, thankfully she managed to ignore that however, as she heard the Goblin King once more through her pain, his words meant to be as stinging as the whip, but thankfully they left no scars in that department.

"On your knees where you belong, Witch filth! Make her scream, hear her howl!" But she hadn't screamed since the first blow to her back, something she was at least thankful for as it gave less satisfaction to them. Eventually, thankfully and ultimately the whipping stopped and the Goblin King got out of his throne, stepping on his subjects all the way before it stood in front of her, the horrid smell doing nothing to make her feel better, there wasn't even any relief in the fact that the whipping had stopped, since it still stung, it still cut her deep. The disgusting being that was apparently a King spoke again, it's tone lowered and menacing, or at least trying to be.

"Anything to say Witch scum? Or is your voice lost in your screams?" She managed to look back up at the Goblin, and slowly but surely, even though the whip marks on her legs caused her to stumble, she got back up on her feet, despite the Goblins that were grabbing her arms, attempting to drag her down. This was because of something that she knew all too well growing in her chest, and was spreading through the lines on her skin, causing it to glow the same sick red as the last time they went against the Orcs. The Goblin King didn't seem to notice this, and she didn't know if the Dwarves could, but she most certainly knew this was happening, and tried her best to hold it down, to not show it. But all she wanted to do was hurt the foul creature in front of her, tear it apart without remorse, make it feel the pain, the humiliation she and the company had. But she couldn't, doing that right off the bat would cause the Dwarves to be killed without a second thought, so instead she smirked at the Goblin King, her voice strained from the scream, but still being able to be heard.

"That's it? I've had worse from Elves," That must have stung on a level that Everin wasn't aware of, as the Goblin King reared back, and hit her across the face, causing her to fall to the ground again. The Witch landed on the rough wooden boards on her back, the sting of the whip marks causing her to cry out again, as everything went distorted in her vision from the hit. She attempted to roll over and get back on her feet, but was stopped by the Goblin King's staff shoved against her neck and pinning her in place. She had to look up at him as her back stung and her muscles twitched, the anger growing in her as the red lines went thicker, and felt more like veins pulsing on the outside of her skin. However, that fact was still ignored by the foul creature that was pinning her into place with his 'prong,' as it growled down at her, a cruel smirk still playing on it's face as it continued to talk.

"Perhaps we shall give you to Azog as well, maybe with your head still attached… After all, the Pale Orc would want something to defile after his victory…" Shouting and curses of anger, demands of her being released were still going on in the background from the Dwarves, but she still couldn't hear them over the pain, and the anger that grew in her like a spreading sickness with no cure. The large Goblin began to sing again as it stood over her, as if to cruelly pour salt in the wound. She heard, over the obnoxious singing, the sounds of metal clanging together. Which she rightly assumed must have been the Mangler and Bone Breaker.

_Bones will be shattered, necks will be wrung,_

_You'll be beaten and battered; from racks you'll be hung!_

_You will die down here and never be found,_

_Down in the deep of Goblin Town!_

While this was going on, one or two of the Goblins that weren't doing their best to keep the furious and shouting Dwarves back, were still searching through the weapons and sacks that were found on the Dwarves and Everin. Eventually one of them came across Thorin's Elfish sword, unsheathing it before seeing the blade in its actuality and throwing it back down on the wooden floor boards, screeching so loudly that it managed to get the attention of the Goblin King, thankfully stopping the foul creature from it's terrible singing. It stumbled back and away from Everin when it saw the blade, leaning against it's throne as it fearfully and angrily explained the fear behind the sword.

"I know that sword! It is the Goblin Cleaver, the biter! The blade that sliced a thousand necks! Slash them! Beat them! Kill them, kill them all!" The Goblins started their real attack then, and Everin had to do her best to get back on her feet to fight them off, but every time she managed to hit one down, another would be in its place, and not long afterwards she was surrounded and being shoved to the floor once more, the sword During that Thorin had given her being shoved at her neck. She twisted her head this way and that before she managed to get the vision of the same happening to Thorin not that far away from her.

"Cut off their heads!" Everin rightly assumed that that meant her and Thorin, and tried her best to avoid the sword that was about to start in the action. Suddenly there was a flash of harsh and bright light; a force that Everin knew must have been magic knocking everything down. She managed to get on her knees and snatch the Durin Sword out of the Goblin's disgusting hands before it even managed to fully wake up itself, slicing it's neck without a second thought. The angry red lines on her skin illuminated the temporary darkness, her muscles screaming and her eyes burning, but she knew she couldn't rest just yet. She looked out into the darkness where the light had come from, seeing the familiar form that she couldn't have been more thankful for in her entire life.

"Take up arms, Fight! Fight!" And fight she did, with everything she had as she ran forwards towards the Dwarves, where a good chunk of the Goblins were as well, and started hacking away at them as they started to get on their feet. She didn't say a word to any of them, there really wasn't any time for that as she was busy trying to ignore both her anger and pain, whilst defending her and Dwarves' lives. She slashed and cut at every Goblin that came her way, feeling the anger grow in her with every creature that fell to her blade. The Goblin King fell during this small amount of time, his throne and a few subjects as well, toppling with him down the ledge and into the darkness.

At some point during Everin's little crazed moment a hand grabs her arm, and she reacts turning quickly to see what it was, her sword at the ready should it be a Goblin. However, she was fortunate she didn't immediately react as her burning subconscious so wanted to, as the hand that had grabbed her arm belonged to Balin. The poor Dwarf had to practically drag her with him for a moment for her to get the point that they were leaving the wooden platform. At soon as she understood, she was ahead of him, trying her best to clear the way for them with every angered moment that she had in her.

Everything became a blur of pain and anger for her not long after that, so really she was fortunate that they managed to keep an eye on her, and she remembered in her fury that she was supposed to be following the Dwarves and Gandalf out of the Mountain. At some point they were sort of split up, with one part of the group being above while the other on a platform below, Everin herself was below with Dwalin and others that she couldn't really remember, so she got a chance to continue to take her anger out on any Goblin that was unfortunate enough to have to fight her. Once or twice she came pretty damn close to being hit by the weapons of the Dwarves, but was thankfully missed just in time as she dodged them. There was also another point where they used a ladder as a bridge and then another where they had to swing a bridge across the cavern to get to the other side, but Everin decided in the few moments that she got a chance to, not to think on those too much, and just keep on running and fighting where she could.

When they had to swing the bridge across the gap, there was a moment where Everin thought she was going to fall, but thankfully a hand grabbed at her torn apart shirt and managed to get her footing in time. The running continued as it seemed the Goblin Town to go on forever, though maybe that was just her not being able to think straight in the moment. Gandalf shot down a large portion of rock from the ceiling, using it to squash any of the Goblins ahead of them in order to save time, though it certainly did nothing for the already disgusting stench the place had.

Finally, the bridge that leads out of this horrid place was just ahead, Everin pushing herself that much faster to get there, despite the gashes on her back screaming at her to stop and rest. But, as they darted across the wooden floorboards to freedom, the Goblin King burst from underneath, making a grab for her and Gloin who was next to her, though some more helpful hands managed to yank the two of them out of the way just in time. Gandalf stepped in front of them all and stared down the horrid creature as it laughed at them all, it's voice filled with more merriment then the situation could have possibly allowed.

"You thought you could escape me?" The Goblin took a swipe at Gandalf, which the Grey Wizard managed to dodge, but nearly fell back if it weren't for Nori and Ori catching him in time. Everin helped push Gandalf upright as the foul King laughed down at them, then looked to the Grey Wizard with complete disinterest, yet mocking in its small piggish eyes as it continued, it's subjects watching their king for the next possible move against their escaping prisoners. Everin looked to Gandalf with worry, as that small moment of doubt creeped in her for the few seconds that it was allowed to pass, wondering if this was all for nothing, if they were never going to escape.

"What are you going to do now Wizard?"All of her doubt went away as Gandalf attacked, slashing at the large Goblin's belly with his sword and stabbing him in the eye with his staff, causing the disgusting creature to fall to its knees. Everin felt a surge of justice with that thought, but it again only lasted a short time as Gandalf finished the horrid thing off once and for all, cutting at what Everin thought was either his chin, or his neck. It fell forwards and onto the wooden bridge, causing it to first creak and crackle, before finally breaking under their feet, sending the section that they were standing on into the darkness below, the howling of the Goblins above them echoing of the rock walls as they fell.

Everin fell backwards and landed (big shocker of course,) on her back, which did nothing to make her feel better with the weightless falling feeling that she hated so much in that moment. Wood shrapnel fell with them into the pit, causing one among many a splinter in Everin's hands as she tried everything to hold onto the section of the bridge they were falling with. But at some point her finger tired and she nearly slipped off altogether, if it weren't for multiple Dwarf hands grabbing her at the last moment and dragging her back onto the wooden platform. It eventually ended as the cavern couldn't have gone on forever (thought it was certainly giving her that feeling,) and the bridge landed in between two rock ledges.

The Witch was flung out of the platform and onto the rock floor beyond, and it took her a moment to get to her feet. While there was still those few moments that the universe seemingly needed to accept what was going on, Everin managed to get on her knees and looked immediately to her hands for inspection. Still red, but not as much as before the fall, the height and feeling of weightlessness must have done something for that. There was still that need to attack of course, and she only had a few spare bits of her mind to be unhappy that it hadn't died down yet, and hoped that she had not injured anyone during her blind moment. Gandalf was also out of the wooden platform trap too, looking back at the Dwarves with a sigh as they looked back at him then at each other.

"Well that could have been worse," tonight (if it still was night,) was not a good time to speak such words, and that was proven true as corpse of the Goblin King suddenly feel on the wooden platform, squishing them just that much more and giving back to them the horrid stench they thought they had escaped from. Everin gagged and stood up, jittering this way and that in an attempt to stand straight, but the heated pain in her back caused her to stoop slightly, and hopefully unnoticeable to everyone else. Gandalf looked surprised and went forward to help them out, Everin doing the same, though she was little help as her arms couldn't really take their weight, the shoulder blades tightening painfully at every tug she attempted to do.

"Gandalf!"Kili shouted, and everyone followed where he was looking, the horrifying sight being that of seemingly all of the Goblins of Goblin Town rushing towards them, screeching into the darkness. Everyone got quickly to their feet this time around, shoving each other out from under the combined weight of both the wooden bridge and the dead Goblin King. The Grey Wizard shouted for them to run, but Everin didn't need to be told twice as she followed Gandalf through the tunnels that he seemingly knew the way out of the mountain with, but really she wasn't going to question that by this point as all she wanted was to get away.

Eventually the tunnel they were leading through opened to sudden daylight, and there was a moment where she had to stop and let the light stop burning at her eyes. Someone grabbed at her arm while this was happening, and continued to drag her onwards until she struggled out of their grip and ran by herself. Adrenaline was good for this sort thing apparently, as she ran ahead of the group, and was only stopped when her legs eventually gave out on her and she had to grab onto a tree to stop and rest for a moment, and stop herself from toppling to the ground to just give up.

"Evie?" Bofur appeared next to her as she gripped the bark of the tree trunk in her hands, feeling as though she just couldn't calm down, her breath still hitching and falling as she tried to keep in check. She didn't reveal this to the Dwarf; instead she gave him an attempt at a small smile and didn't collapse on the ground as much as she wanted to. The rest of the Dwarves caught up and she managed to turn around to face them without crying out at the bark scraping on her back. The muscles in her arms were twitching and tightening with every moment that passed as she tried her best to unclench her fists. Thankfully however, it seemed as though the red in the lines were dying down, but she held no promises in herself.

"Where is our Hobbit?" The Witch looked back to Gandalf and tried to remember the last she'd seen him, but only came up with the fact that she only heard him as they fell through the trap, and was immediately worried, even through her change. The Dwarves started looking to each other, trying to shift the blame of the lost Hobbit to somebody else. Gandalf didn't care much for the finger pointing, and shouted for the true answer as to what was the location of Bilbo. The Grey Wizard looked to the Dwarves, who shrunk a little under his gaze, Everin especially since she was afraid that he was going to use the scary deep voice again. Thorin interrupted, moving from where he had temporarily rested to speak his piece.

"I'll tell you what happened, Master Baggins saw his chance and he took it. He has thought of nothing but his soft and his warm hearth since first he stepped out of his door. We will not be seeing our Hobbit again, he is long gone," Everin wanted to deny that claim, but at the same time the doubts she'd had on the Hobbit when this venture first started resurfaced, and she couldn't help but wonder on the possibility that he had left. Some of the others had a different opinion to her, as they looked doubtful themselves, but only to their leader's words. Gandalf looked a might disappointed, but at the same time hopeful that the Hobbit would unexpectedly spring up.

"No, he isn't," Speak of the devil and he shall appear, and Everin couldn't help but look for the awkward expression on the Dwarf's face. The others that hadn't truly doubted him cheered, others taking a sigh of relief that he was still alive, though all of them was still impressed that there wasn't a scratch on him, they were suspicious to. Kili and Fili were more on the side of impressed, and asked after how the Hobbit managed to get to safety without a scratch. There was a moment were Everin thought she saw Bilbo sneak something into his pocket but she figured that was just her imagination and waited for the Hobbit's answer.

"What does it matter? He's back," Gandalf attempted to lead the conversation away from that strange and mysterious subject, and Everin had a sneaking suspicion that the Grey Wizard was hiding something again. However, Thorin didn't want to let that go as easily as everyone else did, and questioned after it as it seemed as though there was still some anger in him from his previous little speech about Bilbo. The Hobbit looked a little affronted at the question, but all the same answered it with more patience than she ever figured she would have after hearing the words spoken by the Dwarf King.

"It does matter, I want to know. Why did you come back?" The Witch would have rolled her eyes if she weren't so busy trying to keep her thoughts in one place, as she felt so lightheaded, yet at the same time weighed down from the pain that was just, everywhere. Luckily enough the lines on her skin were fading every moment, and she hoped and prayed it to go faster and go away. Everin smiled a little as she heard the Hobbit's speech, knowing that it was reaching Thorin and the others more than they would probably like to admit. She knew this, as it reached her as well, and it was a lot deeper than she would ever say herself.

"Look I know you doubt me, and I know you always have. And you're right I often think of Bag End, I miss my books, and my armchair and my garden. See that's where I belong, that's home. And that's why I came back; you don't have one, a home. It was taken from you, but I will help you take it back if I can." The Witch felt her doubts of the Hobbit slip away bit by bit as he spoke, a new respect for him growing in its place and she knew, she would have to apologize to him later, if she got the chance. A silent moment passed in the group as they seemed to be remembering (or for some, imagining,) the home they had lost long ago to Dragon flames. Everin was about to say something, what she wasn't sure but it probably would have been something along the lines of 'can we leave this potentially dangerous spot now?', when she heard something far off in the distance.

The sounds of growling Wargs and similarly snarling Orcs were not missed on her, and she could hear them so well it was if she were standing right by them. The anger came back before she could blink, the red lines once again as thick as veins and deep in color like blood. Her eyes looked far beyond the group, the trees and large slope that distanced them away from the Orc Pack, feeling the itching feeling she got form the anger from her toes to her teeth, which bared themselves in no time flat, a primal growl of her own lumbering low in her tightened and pained chest.

"Everin, are you alright?" But she couldn't hear the Dwarf beside her; she couldn't hear anything more but the beating of her heart, and the muscles in her fists as they tighten and unclenched by the rhythm of the heart beat. She was still growling, like a wild animal would before jumping their prey, before going for the attack. A howling sounded in the distance, finally alerting the rest of the group to exactly what had riled Everin up this bad, and to what was coming for them. Thorin looked up the slope as well, muttering to himself in a strange mix of fear, and anger.

"Out of the frying pan,"

"And into the fire," Gandalf finished before looking back to the company, his order not really needing to be said as they were already on their way, running a race against time to escape the Wargs that were going to reach them eventually. All except one of course, whose anger still pulsed through the lines on her skin, her eyes shading to blackness as she awaited the chance to kill those who were coming towards her, she was out for blood. She did not want to flee.

"Run!" Everin however, had not moved from her spot, and in fact was looking ready to attack the Orcs by herself. The Witch went to step forwards to attack but Bilbo (who was still right next to her for some reason,) tried to stop her.

"You can't fight them on your own!" And is if to reply, she unclenched her hands again, long nails appearing were they were previously not. Bilbo took a small step back, as if her were about to let her attack anyway, but Gandalf moved quickly and smacked over the head, again. The Witch grabbed her head as she regained some control of her mind for that moment, gave the Wizard a dirty look before turning in the opposite direction of the danger, and running once again as fast as her feet would allow her, despite the still stinging pain of her injuries and now crippling need to turn around and fight. She eventually caught up to the rest of the company, but it wasn't long that the unmanned Wargs managed to catch up with them. Everin heard one approaching behind her, and did not hesitate to turn and slash at them with as much force as she could muster in that moment, thankfully with her sword and not her nails so the Warg died then and there.

They continued to run, however it seemed all for naught, as their little path ended with a seemingly bottomless cliff and a few trees. Gandalf ordered for them to get into the trees, and Everin did not hesitate, jumping up to the first branch she could reach before throwing herself upwards, not caring for any of the harsh twigs that cut at her face, they were nothing now compared to a Goblin whip. Bilbo apparently took his sweet time before finally getting into a tree, which was conveniently just in time as the first Wargs of the Orc pack arrived, tearing at the tree. Everin climbed down every so often in her tree, grabbing the arms of the Dwarves she considered too close to the ground and hoisting them upwards with all her anger fuelled strength, not caring nor listening for their complaints as she went.

At some point as she did this, there was a sudden silence over the cliff; the Wargs had apparently stopped attacking for the moment. The Witch looked down to the ground below, and even through her itching need to fight and attack, she felt that small spark of fear at the sight that couldn't be mistaken for anything else on Middle Earth. After all, Everin hadn't really heard of any other Pale Orc, astride a White Warg other than that one specific Orc. She looked to Thorin, (who was right next to her as she had just pulled him higher in the branches,) who was absolutely furious. Even in the Goblin Town, she had not seen that much anger in him before, it almost depleted her own primal fury to see that, almost.

Azog looked up at Thorin, The pale Orc saying something in its primal tongue that Everin couldn't understand, though judging from the look on the Dwarf King's face, he certainly did. The Witch wasn't sure if Thorin was going to jump out of the tree to attack the Orc or not, so she quickly grabbed at the fur on his coat, hoping that would be enough to remind him the perils of jumping out of their tree. Unfortunately this momentarily granted her the attention of the head Orc, those few seconds that it's sunken in eyes pierced at her alone felt like an eternity before looking to the Grey Wizard in the tree behind them. It then shouted something else that she couldn't understand, but the implication seemed very obvious as now the Wargs attacked with more force to the trunks of the trees they crammed themselves into.

Everin counted her lucky stars that she was high enough in the branches that the Wargs couldn't really reach her, despite them giving apparently everything they had to do so. However, the ugly wolf hybrids starting jumping higher than before, and Everin knew by that point thanks to the creaking under her feet, that the tree was not going to last long. Either she was going to fall to the Wargs, or they'd reach her on their own. Finally after a few more moments of watching them trying and failing to catch their limbs with their teeth, the tree gave in and started to fall, the Wargs waiting nearby to feast on whatever was unfortunate to hit the ground first.

Thankfully that didn't happen however, as they jumped from their falling tree to the next, which seemed to follow after it's fellow plant life, creating a tree domino effect before it finally ended at Gandalf's tree, which now had fourteen more people in it than beforehand. The mocking laughter of Azog filled Everin's ears as she tried her best to retain her grip on the branch, the snapping of Warg jaws below her not needing to remind her of the consequences should that action fail. The tree the Grey Wizard initially climbed into first seemed a tad more reinforced and durable than the last three, so it took a little while longer before it would fall as well.

Before that happened however, Everin watched as Gandalf grabbed a pine cone of the tree and set it alight, throwing the now firebomb down to the Wargs below, which skittered away from the flames in fear. Moving quickly, Everin managed to stabilize herself on her branch and grabbed a pine cone or two of her own, clicking her fingers at the object with as much fever as she could, feeling it heat up and alight in her hands for those few seconds before she threw hers as well. As she was doing this, she noticed that the light had not dimmed form the lines in her arms, and breathed deeply to sate herself, lighting a few more of the pine cone firebombs to try and take her mind off of it.

But as said before, the tree did not last in it's situated roots, despite the now better attack they were giving the Pale Orc and it's pack, and it finally fell. Which was unfortunate as it was the last tree on the cliff, meaning that now they were hanging onto said tree, to stop them from falling to their steep, steep deaths. Ori was nearly the very first to fall, but was saved as he grabbed his brother Dori's legs, which also was unfortunate as it meant that Dori was losing his grip on the tree branch and had to grab a hold on Gandalf's staff to remain at the same sea level as the rest of the company. Everin tried to move closer to reach them and help, but couldn't seem to be able to as every branch she tried to grab to pull herself forwards, snapped off and fell the great distance.

It took less than a second for her to notice that Thorin was no longer behind her, and was instead charging to attack the Pale Orc and Warg. She managed to shimmy herself around a slight bit so she could see him and make sure he was still breathing back on that cliff, only to remain horrified by the sight she got to see, as turning back around could have made her branch finally break from under her. The Dwarf King ran forwards, an oaken branch once again in his grip as he went to attack his foe, however, he was knocked to the ground by the White Warg, which turned back and sunk its teeth into him after Thorin was again hit to the ground by the Orc's Mace.

The Witch felt the anger in her soar to new heights when the Dwarf King was thrown aside by the Warg, and was not moving. Others tried to get to him, but their branches broke under their feet and they too were left for those few precious moments, occupied by hanging on for their lives. All that was left was Bilbo, who was already standing on the main trunk of the tree, and Everin, who was watching this terrible occasion go on, her grip on her own skill breaking away faster with every moment. The Hobbit ran forward off the trunk, the only sign Everin got of his disappearance being his hairy toed form jumping over her and towards the Dwarf King to go to his aid. Everin, in one last attempt, looked back at the Grey Wizard who was behind her, still struggling to keep Dori and Ori from falling, and called out to him in desperation.

"Gandalf, we have to leave now!"

"That is being seen to Miss Everin, now gain some patience!"

"No, I mean we have to leave, right now!" His attention finally goes to her, and sees her plight. Everin's head was facing away from the fire at this time, but the red lines on her face and arms, thick and pulsing, looked ready to set something alight. Her fingers once again had the long nails, which were stuck deep into the trunk of the tree in her desperation to remain where she was. However, it was her eyes that alerted him, as they were wide, afraid and tinted black, fading faster into darkness at every second passed before she bowed her head. The Grey Wizard called to her again, trying to reach her before she left her mind to her other side.

"Control it Miss Everin! Don't let it control you!" It was too late, as she looked up; her eyes were seemingly nothing but black gaps in her face in the place of true eyes. Her hands quickly released themselves from the deep grip in the tree bark, and shook slightly as the nails glowed in the firelight, colored a blood red. She said one last thing before disappearing into the high flames that led towards the Pale Orc's pack; the words were haunting and would have echoed in their ears, if it weren't for the situation that was already gaining their attention at that moment.

"God, don't let me do bad things…"

* * *

That moment when Everin's boots left the bark of the tree trunks and once again touched the grass of the cliff clearing, her conscious left her body for the rest of that night, leaving only blind, animalistic fury in her wake. She walked slowly at first, as the Orcs and Wargs had apparently not seen her yet, but that was fine, since they would real soon. She jumped up to a rock, noticing that the Hobbit had just attacked and killed an Orc that was going to cut the Dwarf King's head off, but then again that didn't do any good, as now the Orcs were about to turn on him instead. She managed to turn their heads however, as she roared loudly into the heated night wind.

It wasn't the sound of anything that could be conceived as human or even a person. The roar pierced eardrums and caused the attention she wanted, which pulled them away from the Hobbit. The head of the Orc Pack saw her as well, and snarled something in it's native tongue that she understood even less in her angered form than beforehand. But that didn't matter to her, really nothing did at that moment, as she just held her hand up, and made a 'come hither' gesture to the Orc, hissing loudly through clenched, grinning teeth. That only angered the Orc, for some reason, and it gestured for the Orcs and Wargs to attack her as well.

However, most of them didn't get to even reach the rock she was on, as the Dwarves had apparently managed to get themselves out of the tree, and began fighting their enemy. Everin didn't like to be left out, so as soon as one of the Orcs managed to get close enough without dying, she jumped. The Witch landed on the Orc's back, but what was more strange and frightening for the Dwarf standing not that far away from the Orc, was the fact that her arm had ripped right through it, the clawed limb bursting through the foul creature's chest. She pulled her arm out as it fell, and gave the Dwarf, which she would have recognized as Nori, one look, then moved on, slashing at the furred hide of a Warg that came running towards them.

She sliced, hacked, cut and stabbed wherever she could, whether it was her nails or her sword was unknown, but the Orcs and Wargs fell all the same no matter what she used. However, with every Orc or Warg that fell, another would appear in it's place. And despite her anger fueling her to attack, she was not able to defend herself, and because of that she was knocked down at some point from behind. She snarled up at her attackers, her enemies and tried her best to fight them away and recollect herself at the same time, but it was difficult. Unknown to Everin however, was the fact that as she tried to fight off the Orcs that were in front of her, there was one behind her, rearing up it's large mace to attack, but thankfully that was stopped in time by a sudden force against it's head, killing it instantly.

The Witch spared a glance behind her as she continued to fight, seeing Bofur with his Mattock battering away all the Orcs that were still behind her. The other Dwarves joined him in their attack, but she didn't really see them nor acknowledged them at all as she continued to attack the Orcs with as much ferocity as she could manage. More once getting a little too close for comfort to the Dwarves when she swung her sword in the air, or slashed Orc flesh with her nails. It seemed however, that she was growing disinterested in the Orc/Warg army, as it seemed that she was moving closer to the Pale Orc every moment. Finally she jumped up t the rock where the injured Thorin still laid, defending him from a sudden attempt of attack from Azog. Her hand grabbed the mace that was about to smash into the Dwarf's head, snarling at the Orc that in her conscious mind, she had feared so much.

Azog hissed something at her in it's native tongue once again, but she just laughed in it's face, pushing to move the Orc backwards, though of course it was just that bit stronger than her and managed to stay where it was. Everything seemed slowed in those moments that she had struggling against the power of Azog, as she got a good look at it's face while she was trying to push it away, seeing all the cold, yet burning anger in its eyes, a sight of no remorse, no conscience no morals. It was an animal of anger filled instinct, which just happened to know how to talk. That thought would later be frightening to the normal Everin, as that reminded her to much of what she was when she let her anger go.

There was a sound from behind Everin, and for a moment of distraction she looked back to the injured Dwarf that was supposedly behind her, only to see that he was gone. Unfortunately that did nothing to help her as now she was alone, the other Dwarves that were in the cliff clearing with her being gone by this point as well. Azog broke form her grip on it's mace wielded arm, and knocked her off the rock altogether. She fell to the heated ground below, the fires caused by the company burning not that far away from her head. The flames licked at her heated skin, motivating her to at least attempt to sit up, at least until The Pale Orc got back to her and killed her.

While laying there on the ground, surrounded by Orcs and Wargs that were about to descend on her to end her sad existence. Everin wondered, in the few moments she was given to have a conscious thought before it was squashed immediately by her anger and animal natures, if she was going to die here, surrounded by the very ugly creatures she felt were no better than her. And couldn't help but just wonder, would it have been so bad to end it here? After all, she had at least helped some people beforehand, and they didn't hate her for it. It seemed like a pretty okay note to go out on if she were to admit that to herself. But at the same time, just as her thoughts were being shoved back out for instinct, she knew she couldn't stop here, that there was still obstacles ahead for them, and she had made a promise. Sure it was a promise that she was kind of forced into, but a promise all the same. She had to keep going, and to do that, she needed to move first.

Everin's hand lifted slightly in an attempt to at least move, the Orcs around her already moving in for the kill. Suddenly, a loud call, that she knew didn't belong to her, reached her ears for the first time in the battle, and a sight that was apparently above her head that she couldn't see, caused the Orcs and Wargs to quickly move away from her in fear. The first thing that clouded her vision was that of feathers, soft colored and calming to the eyes after the harsh sights of blood and fire that's she had seen this night. They appeared from nowhere, followed swiftly by claws that grabbed at her form and lifted her up from danger, away from the angry calls of Azog.

* * *

In the blink of a tired eye she was flying, high above the trees and clouds, the wind whipping at her form, the coolness of the temperature giving relief to her injuries. A few seconds, which felt more like an eternity after she was lifted into the sky, the claws released on her, and she fell for a small time. There was no scream, no cry of fear on her as she was to delirious to even notice what was going on. She did land on the back of another creature of feathers (her mind couldn't decide what it was at the time,) but all the same she couldn't care less, as the feathers were so soft and inviting.

The soft feathered creature carried her for some time, with her slipping in and out of sleep along the way until finally the soft feathered creature that had been carrying her across this great distance dropped her to a cold ground. Someone was dropped next to her, but she couldn't be bothered looking to who it was, her eyelids dropping at an exceedingly fast rate as she wanted to completely sleep at last. That seemed to be something that others didn't want at least, as she saw through her nearly shut eyes someone running towards her and the person next to her. They shouted something, words slurred by her ears as she suddenly wished for the soft feathers of the creature to return, just to have something to comfort her.

Whoever was running towards them went to the person next to her first, someone else going to her. She felt herself being lift up, and tried to open her eyes again to see who it was, managing to blink a couple of times so she could at least see the face of the person holding her. Everin's head was pounding, her eyes seeing not much besides a smile that appeared on that person's face when they saw her eyes open. For whatever reason she decided in that moment that she really liked that smile, it comforted her. And for whatever reason, though she would like to blame it on the injuries she had and the fact she was incredibly tired, she decided to comment on it.

"Your smile is nice," Her voice sounded slurred, while her head leaned against their shoulder. The eyesight blurred, so sadly she didn't really get to see their smile anymore as she closed her eyelids over the tired irises. She was almost stopped from going to sleep, the slurred words trying to get her to open her eyes again, but other words from someone else stopped them and allowed her to continue in her actions to finally sleep. The shoulder of the person holding her was seemingly more comfortable than the soft feathers of the creatures that saved her. As finally, for the first time in ages and despite the fact it was now morning, she managed to get to sleep.

* * *

_Far over the misty mountains rise,_

_Leave us standing upon the height,_

_What was before, receive once more, _

_Is our kingdom, a distant light._

When Everin woke again she was no longer confused as before, nor was she surrounded by feathers or claws that pulled her to safety, rather the company that she had been traveling with all this way. There was a small fire in the middle of their apparent camping, the firelight illuminating the stone around it, but only to a point where it stopped, making the Witch assume that they must have been on a mountain side again. She wondered briefly, as she attempted to sit up out of the Bed roll she had been so carefully placed in, if she was dreaming, or had died since everything was peaceful again, not an attacking Orc, Goblin or Warg to be seen. Getting up eventually seemed to much of a painful action, so Everin just lay back down again, continuing to listen to what she had just now registered was the Dwarves' singing.

_Fiery Mountain, beneath the moon,_

_With words unspoken, we'll be there soon,_

_For home a song, that echoes on,_

_And all who find us, will know the tune,_

Quietly, so as to not disrupt the song, Everin reached out her hand, looking for someone else's so she could register to them that she was awake and thankfully alive. Her slightly blurred eyesight, (as she had been sleeping a while,) made out the figure with a hat she knew so well. Everin didn't say anything as she touched his hand, Bofur himself not saying anything either as he looked back at her and smiled, (with a smile that she seemed to recognize for some reason,) as he continued to sing while he carefully held her hand. The Dwarves were sitting in a sort of circle as they sang, meaning that her Bed roll was placed behind, maybe as a precaution to not wake her up, though it didn't work. After a time she became worried on the whereabouts of Bilbo and Gandalf, made was calmed when she found them a moment later, also sitting away from the Dwarves' circle, watching them sing as the firelight reflected on their faces.

_He lies under the misty mountains cold,_

_In slumbers deep, and dreams of gold,_

_We must away, our lives to make,_

_And in the darkness a torch we hold,_

The Witch lay back down in her Bed roll again, her hand still holding Bofur's as she attempted to drift off once more, but was finding it increasingly difficult as the pain in her back returned full force, apparently having been ignored beforehand thanks to an anger spark and the long sleep she had. Everin bit her bottom lip to contain a small pained noise that could have come out; she didn't want to break the mood the song gave in that moment. So she remained silent to the best of her capability for the rest of that night, biting into the Bed roll at times whenever the pain would randomly spike, letting the song calm herself from the pain.

_From long ago, when lanterns burned,_

_Until this day, our hearts have yearned,_

_A fate unknown, the Arkenstone,_

_What was stolen must be returned._

The song continued on as Everin continued to feel drowsy yet again, hoping that the pain wasn't going to drag her away from another attempt to go back to sleep, she closed her eyes. Just as she did so however, the song seemed to end and the group dispersed to their Bed rolls, Bofur's hand leaving hers to be alone and huddled up to hug herself in pain. None of the other Dwarves, nor Bilbo or Gandalf had noticed her being awake just yet, so she decided not to bother them one more as she knew they were more than likely more tired than her, and needed their sleep as well. So she just lay on her Bed roll, and waited until either sleep claimed her for a second time, or at least for the golden sun to stretch across the Middle Earth sky once more.

_Far away, from Misty Mountains cold,_

* * *

**_Please review, constructive criticism always welcome.  
_**


	7. Chapter 7

When the morning did come, Everin wasn't sure if she had been sleeping or not but that wasn't important to her at the time. What was important however, was the fact that she realized, as the morning light cleared up for her, which was that they were not on a mountain side, but on the very top of one. Everin slowly attempted to sit up, letting put an unintended hiss of pain as what felt like a dozen firecrackers exploding lined across her back. The others were, at least as far as could see, thankfully not awake yet, so she didn't have to answer as to what was wrong. Slowly, Everin got to her feet and walked a little ways to the edge of the mountain they appeared to be on, looking over the edge to the world below.

Suddenly she felt the presence of someone behind her, which surprised her enough that she nearly fell forwards over the edge, but thankfully she managed to right herself in time and turned to glare at the Dwarf who had nearly sent her falling, only to falter when she that it was actually Thorin. The Dwarf King gave her a look of worry mixed with annoyance, which wasn't an uncommon expression on his face so she just shrugged it off and moved a little more away from the edge so she didn't fall for real. Thorin followed her small and careful footsteps, listening as she asked her questions that he knew she would have wanted answered as soon as she woke up.

"Where are we? What happened last night?"

"According to Gandalf we were saved by large Eagles, some old friends of his as he says, where we are now is a mountain that he calls 'The Carrock'. I suggest you go and get more sleep, it has been a tiring two days for everyone, and we need the full sunlight in order to get down from here." She remembered as he spoke, the soft feathers and saving claws that pulled her form the fiery ground. Then there was the soft voices of the Dwarves in the night as they sang, soothing away her pain at that time. But before all of that, she remembered, clutching onto the tree, about to lose the battle with her anger…No, she did lose. Everin looked back to the Dwarf King, before quickly pulling out the Durin sword she had managed to keep hold of, even after what happened the night before, watching the beginnings of the morning light shine on the silver.

"What are you doing?" She held the sword to him by the blade, her voice even and trying not to sound as scared as she truly felt, her hands shaking that small bit as she waited for him to take the blade. He seemed surprised for some reason, but she was not dissuaded from that as she knew what had to happen next. After all, he had given his word, made a promise, and she would be insulting him if she didn't expect him to keep it. At first Thorin took the blade as gestured to him, but that didn't make him any more knowledgeable in what she was doing before she spoke.

"I didn't keep my promise, so please…Keep yours. Kill me like you said you would Thorin. Just…make it quick." She shut her eyes tight, trying to ignore the fact that there were now more than two pairs of eyes watching this event unfold, though she did hope, for the sake of them alone, that neither Ori nor Bilbo was watching this. She wanted at least some innocence to remain in this world, even if her own was long gone. Everin waited for the metal to touch her skin before rearing back for the kill, but such a feeling never came, and after a few seconds of fearing that she was wrong, she opened her eyes to see that Thorin had not even lifted his hand. In fact it was only as soon as he saw her looking back at him that he did lift the sword, to offer it back to her hand.

"I will not be killing you Everin, for you did not break your part of the promise. None of the company here are dead or injured because of you, they are alive and well due to the bravery of yourself, and Mr. Baggins. You will need this blade," Everin gently took the blade out of his hands again, feeling the weighted and cold metal in her hands. There was an eyebrow raised at the comment of her and the Hobbit's bravery, apparently she had missed something important on the day she had completely slept through. There was also the fact that this was the first time he had said her name on this whole venture without referring to her as 'Witch' or putting 'Miss' in front of it. As she sheathed the sword and placed it back on her belt the Dwarf surprised her with a sudden hug.

Now, it had been many years since Everin ever had physical contact like that, so for a moment she was stunned in what she should do. Eventually though she did hug the Dwarf back, still aware of the other pairs of eyes that were watching them as she did so. It was a nice moment to have, and she wanted to remember it for as long as she could. Out of the corner of her eye she did see some of the company sitting up out of their Bed Rolls to watch this occasion (that only a few seconds ago could have been her last occasion,) and smiled to themselves as they watched the pair broke apart from the hug. And as Everin moved back from the hug, she was surprised again to see a genuine smile on the Dwarf's face as he clapped his hand over her shoulder.

"Get some sleep, we leave when the sun is further in the sky, Oin will see to our wounds as soon as we are off the Carrock," Everin nodded and carefully sat back down on her Bed Roll, being careful with how she moved so she didn't disturb anyone, or continued to cause herself pain from her back. Thorin was already back in his own Bed Roll, leaving the top of the Carrock in silence once more. None of the Dwarves that were awake during this time didn't say a thing; they just remained in their Bed Rolls as well, which was fine with Everin since she did want to go back to actual sleep, and got to do so not that long afterwards, the soft rush of the morning wind helping her mind to lull itself to sleep.

* * *

Climbing down the Carrock was more difficult than what Everin had actually expected, what with the rock slopes being pretty deep, meaning that she had to strain her back more than once. Though, she still said nothing, since Everin figured that they all had more on their minds anyway, like some injuries of their own. The Witch had to grab onto the side rock wall as she did her best to get down on her own, every so often having to resort to blind jumping down a certain slope that seemed to deep to reach by climbing. The others of the Company did have to jump down more often than her and Gandalf as they were shorter, but at the same time they had lived and been through mountains more often than the two magical beings and the Hobbit included, so they were more comfortable in the situation than them, Everin especially as she was always looking down and hoping that she wasn't going to slip and fall all that way.

However, it seemed as though Everin wasn't as good at covering up that she was having a hard time climbing down the slopes, since at some point during their descent down the Carrock, she was picked up from behind by Bifur and shoved onto Dwalin's back, who was in front of her and slung her arms around his neck and secured her legs so they were wrapped around his waist. She didn't struggle since they were already in a dangerous position, so instead she tried to argue against it, crossly telling the burly Dwarf to put her down, but was met with simple replies that negated any possibility of him putting her back on the ground. His voice was so straight and narrow, but at the same time withheld some humor at the situation all the same, just as she expected as she could hear the sounds of muffled chuckles form the others in the company.

"Dwalin put me down,"

"That's not going to happen Lassie, we don't want you hurting yourself or falling off the edge so you'll have to just have to sit tight," Continuing to argue was not going to help or change anything, so Everin just pouted and did as she was asked, knowing that she was going to have something to say about it when they finally got down from the Carrock. It was also an added bonus to her, (not that she would say anything about it,) that she didn't have to continuously hurt her back anymore by stretching or jumping to reach the next slope, so that was possibly another reason she didn't mind all that much. Bilbo was actually in front of her and Dwalin, which was amusing as he was actually slung over Gloin's shoulder, his unamused expression making her feel better about her situation at least. Everin grinned to the Hobbit and he replied with his unhappy expression doubled now as a glare, which of course only amused her even more.

"Not one word," He accusingly pointed his finger at her, which did lose allot of its effectiveness when he was carried the way he was. They were carried by Dwalin and Gloin for the next few steep slopes and near misses, but eventually they had to be swapped as the two Dwarves already had a difficult enough time climbing down. Bilbo was given to Bifur, while Everin was passed to Bofur who was in front of Gloin. The Witch disliked the fact that she was passed around like a small child between the Dwarves instead of walking by herself, but knew that it was unlikely that she could change their minds of that anyway, so she just lived with it.

Being carried by Bofur wasn't that different from Dwalin, except of course the slight decrease in height and the fact that there was now that familiar materials of his hat sitting just below her chin so she had something to rest her head on when she was getting a crick in her neck from trying to look as far ahead as she could to at least attempt to help out, or find out how far from the ground they were. Everin unintentionally held the Dwarf closer as he carefully jumped down a rather steep ledge of the mountain, biting her lip in fear as she knew she only had to look to her side to again see the still deep drop from where they were currently clinging.

"Keep holding on Evie," he muttered as she lowered her head and nodded into his hat and braids as they continued on down the mountain, looking ahead every so often to see how far down the mountain they had gotten. Eventually Everin noticed that Bofur was failing at hiding how tired he was starting to get form carrying her, so she attempted to get down and walk on her own, but of course he wouldn't let her. She tried to argue against that as well, all the while being so careful not to struggle too much to again, to as stated before, save them from falling down. The others listened to them banter, rolling their eyes as they climbed down the slopes, they seemed so much like an old married couple at that moment.

"Listen, the slopes aren't that bad anymore and we're close to the bottom, I can do this on my own now,"

"See, I would have believed that if it weren't for the fact that I haven't forgotten about your injuries on your back. So, if you think I'm letting you down before we reach the ground again you're more sorely mistaken than you think,"

"Gods you're stubborn!"

"…But my smile's still nice though right?" That certainly got everyone's attention as they paid more attention to what they were both saying, especially Everin, who looked more than a little confused over what the Dwarf, had said. However, the more she thought over it and tried to think back over Bofur's words, her hazy memories of the day and night before kicked in, and she never thought her face could turn so red with embarrassment before. She tried to hide the bright glow of her face behind the material of his hat as she muttered mostly to herself, but of course the Dwarf heard it, and laughed.

"…Oh gods I did say that…"

Bofur laughed for a while longer, still carefully watching his step as he continued to carry her down the mountain. Ignoring any of the offers given by the other Dwarves to carry the injured Witch for him, he instead replied to her embarrassed comment with some light hearted humor to make her feel a little better through her embarrassment. This of course only left her more speechless as she didn't know how to react, or what to say in retort or reply. The others were still listening closely to the awkward conversation going on between the Dwarf and Witch, as they felt very protective over the light hearted Dwarf… and the Witch as well, somewhat. They didn't want either of them to hurt the other or themselves either intentionally or not with this conversation.

"I-I…"

"Ah I was only teasing, don't worry about it," But now she felt bad, which was why she didn't know how to react. If she just left it alone, she was worried that she might hurt his feelings somehow. But if she did say something he might think something of it, and she wasn't sure how to feel or what to do about something like that. She had never really spoken to someone as often and in good terms as she had done the hat wearing Dwarf, and she didn't want that to go away so soon in the time they'd had in this group, so she tried to exercise both choices in one way, and came out as a stuttering mess. This was only more amusing to Bofur, but at the same time, was seen as a little strange to the others.

After a while of stumbling and retracting some of her words, she finally just sighed and bowed her head further into the material of his hat and braids, muttering one last thing to the Dwarf carrying her before she remained silent for the rest of the climb down the Carrock. Bofur chuckled some more, but tried at least to hide it, unlike his kin who were giggling amongst themselves as she felt her face only grow more red. The Dwarf's hat didn't exactly smell all that nice, but that was to be expected since they had been through the Goblin Town of the Misty Mountains, which as she remembered, smelt pretty bad so the stench of course stayed with them. The hat was soft however, so Everin just put up with the smell, as she had done beforehand in the mountains. So, it was as she was putting her nose into the material of his headgear that she muttered the last thing she would say for the rest of the climb down.

"Bofur, can you just pretend that I can't talk for a while?"

"Okay Evie,"

* * *

Eventually, as they reached the last few slopes of the Carrock, the others of the company managed to convince Bofur to give Everin over to someone else to carry the rest of the way. She herself didn't make much of a complaint anymore at being carried, mostly because she was still trying to live down her embarrassment, so she and Bilbo were handed over to Fili and Kili. The Dwarf brothers followed Everin's lead in not saying much as they finally seemed to get to the grassy ground once more. However, as soon as she was certain that they were on the flat ground and it wasn't dangerous anymore, she struggled out of Kili's hold and stood on her own feet, wincing a little unintentionally as she straightened her back again.

"I seriously disliked that," She muttered to Kili, who just smirked as if to say 'yes we knew,' and walked ahead with his brother, who had already dropped the Hobbit he had been carrying on the ground, with some care at least. Everin gave herself a moment to get use to the pain in her back before she continued to walk with the company, still not making any comment towards it. However it seemed as though they weren't going to walk on for that much longer as Oin demanded to their leader that they stop and have all their injuries treated. Apparently the Dwarf had been patient enough in waiting until they were down and off the Carrock before he got to do his duty as a healer.

"Very well," Thorin sighed, obviously not interested in fighting with his healer over this as he turned back to the rest of the company, ordering that they were going to stop and rest for a while to have the injuries seen to before heading off again. Though he did make sure as they were placing their packs on the ground, to remind everyone that the Orcs were still not that far away, despite how far the eagles may have taken them in that one night. As Everin managed to get herself to sit on the ground, she felt eye on her immediately and looked up to see Oin waiting for her.

"You're first lass," He grumbled, and she sighed before moving to get up, but faltered as she again felt a hand on her shoulder, looking back to see Bofur as he got her to continue sitting on the ground and gestured for the healer to go to her. This situation only got stranger as the other Dwarves proceeded to shed their armor and one or two their shirts as well, leaving her face to blush red again, and Oin to ask if she had a concussion or bruising on her face, to which she lamely declined. And of course it got even stranger when the healer asked her to remove her shirt as well, leaving her to look back at him with an expression clearly asking after a well needed explanation.

"I need to see the injuries on yer back; otherwise they'd get infected," Everin looked back to Thorin and Gandalf, feeling her throat dry a little bit as they didn't seem to notice anything and weren't even look in her direction. She was completely uncomfortable with this situation, gripping the edges of her shirt and moving her gaze to the ground. Nothing was said for a minute as she tried to even her breathing and remain calm; not wanting to look as bothered as she really was. Bofur and Oin were still sitting beside her, so they could see her chest breathing unevenly, but thankfully no one else could. The hat wearing Dwarf grabbed her hand before it could start trembling, giving her a smile that seemed to make her feel much better. However she still seemed a little unsure about something as she whispered something quickly to the Dwarf beside her.

"Can you send Ori away, so he can't see anything?" She looked over for a moment at the youngest Dwarf in the company, who was currently talking to his brothers on some subject that seemed to get them pretty animated in their debate, annoying some of the Dwarves around them in their raised voices. Bofur looked back t her in a moment with confusion, until realization dawned on him and he remembered the fact that she had the injuries on her back from defending Ori form the Goblins and their punishment. He nodded once, then suddenly got up and left her side, frightening her for a moment before she saw him walk to Thorin and quickly whisper something in his ear before coming back. Only a second later of course, the leader of their company spoke out his order, the whole company, even Ori and his brothers, falling silent as soon as they heard the tone in Thorin's voice.

"Kili, go ahead and look for anything we can use as provisions," The Dwarf he had ordered moved away from his brother and went to walk past his other member of kin, when Thorin grabbed his shoulder, "Take Ori and Bilbo with you," he muttered, ignoring the confused expression on the younger Dwarf's face as he looked back to the Hobbit and youngest Dwarf, who had heard what the leader had muttered, and despite their confusion they had gotten up and were starting to walk ahead, Kili following after them not a moment later. As soon as Everin was sure that she could no longer see them, she released her grip on the hem of her shirt, and a moment later quickly lifted the piece of clothing off of her head and took it off, reminding herself how thankful she was that she did wear tightly wrapped cloth around her chest at all times.

However, she did wish it could cover the rest of her body, as she felt so exposed and small in that moment. Everin didn't lift her head again while her shirt was off, instead looking at the lines etched onto her now completely bare arms. Her fingers traced them as she felt the eyes of the company's healer on her back, where the injuries that still stung and burn were situated. Her voice never rose during this time, and Bofur couldn't help but notice how small she seemed to have become all of a sudden. He held her hand again, and she seemed to appreciate that as she squeezed back, her hand seemingly slipped out through the brown curtain that was her hair, hiding her face from view as only her slightly muted voice was the only other thing to slip out from that veil.

"How bad is it?"

"Was it a whip? Well of course it was lass," Bofur rolled his eyes as he caught sight of the flattened ear trumpet in the healer Dwarf's grip. Unfortunately he was completely loud enough, without his actual intention of course, that others in the company, who had at this point been ignoring what was going on practically in the corner of their rest spot, to now take a few available moments that they had in their actions to look in their direction at what was taking place. Bofur spoke louder for her, making sure that the Dwarf healer could hear him better than he had the Witch.

"She said, how bad is it?" He didn't want to draw any more attention to them, but knew that he would have to in order to have her injuries dealt with faster so she didn't have to feel so uncomfortable in front of the company for much longer than she had to. Oin looked annoyed at the hat wearing Dwarf, but still continued to inspect the cuts that were marked over her back, one or two cutting through the lines on her skin, severing that strange skin marks that she had. He had to move some of the hair that was on her back in order to see the cuts that were hidden by the brown veil.

It was worse than he thought, but thankfully the cuts weren't infected, yet. The blood that had seeped from the cuts or at least the ones that had actually cut in and caused bleeding, had long since dried, sealing the wounds, but they just as easily could open up again at any stressed action of the muscles in her back. In order to see how bad it really was, Oin did have to poke one of the ones that hadn't opened up or bled. However, as soon as his fingertip touched even the lightest of the red from the scarring, she yelled out in pain. The others of the company paid immediate attention, and Bofur swore he could feel a small rush of wind in their direction as their heads simultaneously snapped to where she was sitting. And he of course noticed that first, before the feeling of pain he got as she was squeezing the pulse out of his hand.

"Evie, that hurts," Bofur said gently, trying to release his hand from the painful grip of the injured Witch as she seemed adamant to let go. Oin didn't poke her scars again, since her immediate reaction seemed to be enough for him on what he should do. He got up to collect his ointments and other such healing tools as the Witch started to breathe a little heavier in pain, her head still failing to lift at all as she continued to look to the ground, looking side wards a small bit only once to yell back to the Dwarf who was unfortunately the subject of her grip.

"Yes it does!" No one had noticed the Grey Wizard move while she was being treated, in fact he only had moved after she had yelled out in pain, but then again no one would have seen him move as they were too busy watching her. At some point he suddenly showed up beside the Dwarf healer, seeing the marks seared across her back and a little ways on her shoulders. Everin, thankfully to herself, didn't see the dark look that crossed his face at the sight of the scars on her back. However the rest of the company was not that fortunate as they received that look, and the booming, dark voice that alerted both Everin and everyone else of his presence, and again caused Everin to have goosebumps, just like she did all those months ago at the Bag End.

"What happened?" Everyone flinched, Everin as well, which only made her feel even worse so there wasn't really anything to gain from that. It was obvious that he was yelling to the rest of the company for an answer. That didn't sit well with the Witch, especially since Kili, Ori and Bilbo were returning from their leave of absence. Everin decided that she should step in on this one before anything else could happen, and they were left without a Wizard to help them on their quest, whether he left by his own violation or not. She yelled out herself, turning her head the best she could so it was made obvious that she was talking to the Gandalf.

"It's not their fault so don't yell at them!" She wasn't able to say much more as Oin then applied the ointment to her back, the feeling of the cold medicine on her back giving her so much relief as she could already feel the burning pain numbing down. Her hand at this time, finally, loosened its grip on Bofur's hand, muttering a small apology to the Dwarf before saying nothing much else while the ointment was being applied to her scars. Gandalf also went silent after she had yelled out, walking off again to do something of a mysterious nature of course. It wasn't until after the ointment was fully applied that Bofur noticed the strange mark that was on the Witch's bare arm, and asked after it.

"What is that?" He held her arm out a little more so it was in the light and could be seen better. That also got the attention of Oin, who at first thought that it was another injury gained from that night, but of course as soon as he saw the mark it was obvious that it was just some permanent scarring from a long time ago, so he went back to working on the wounds on her back. Everin looked at the mark on her arm, which in the light looked more like an animal bite, and she surprised Bofur, and the others of the company that were listening, by laughing.

"Oh, I forgot about that," She was smiling thinly, in bitter humor at the mark on her arm as she lightly touched over it with her other hand. It was a large bite mark; at least now Bofur identified it as one since it was held out into the light. The others could see it as well, and wondered how they managed to miss something like that, but then again Everin did wear clothing that covered such things. It seemed that her baggy shirt that she wore covered a lot about herself, not just the scars on her back and mark on her upper arm, but there was also the fact that they could practically see some of the bones sticking out of the skin in her arms and shoulders.

The other things they saw, (whenever they managed to sneak a glance while having their own discussion,) was things such as her ribs were sticking out of her sides, or at least the few they could see that she wasn't covering up with her long hair as she bowed her head. In fact, the way her head was lowered, all they could see was her thin arms and hips breaking through the veil of her hair. Oin was the only person (other than Gandalf,) to see that her spine was certainly almost as visible as her arms and ribs. She was obviously embarrassed by her uncovered body, hiding it from sight and would probably never move from that spot until she was given the chance to put her shirt back on. The bite mark was only seen because of the unfortunate fact to be on her arm, so she would have to explain it.

"That was from the first, and certainly last time that I ever stole a chicken, or at least attempted to," She laughed a little, obviously thinking back on that day as she remained silent for a moment before muttering, "Hate that dog," Bofur didn't smile even a little with her at the story she apparently had behind the rather deep mark on her arm, because he certainly didn't find it as humorous as she apparently did, nor did the rest of the company. However she seemed oblivious to that fact (or maybe she did know, and decidedly chose not to mention it,) as she turned back to the healer and was about to ask him a question when she was interrupted by another question from the hat wearing Dwarf.

"How old were you when that happened?" Everin paused as she looked to the sky, which was almost completely covered by the tops of trees. They might have thought that she was ignoring the question, which she most certainly wasn't; she was in fact looking back through her memories to try and pull out that moment, and wondered how old she actually was. After a few moment she made a strange expression, then looked over to where the Grey Wizard had moved away to after a time, her question a little strange in the eyes of the Dwarves and Hobbit, but all the same she didn't really notice that as she was too busy asking Gandalf after her query.

"Gandalf, how old am I?" She was scratching the back of her neck as the Wizard seemed to have to think over it as well, counting back and looking over the years. Everin's memories were always strange; she could remember what age she was at big events in her life, but everything else blurred together into one line of memories that she didn't find to be all that important or relevant anyway so she forgot them well enough. The rest of the company seemed confused over her lack of knowledge on her age, but all the same they didn't ask any more after it past that point, as they understood that she didn't even know how old she was now, so she wasn't going to remember her age on that day as well.

"I do believe I have forgotten," Nothing more was said on the subject as it seemed that both magical beings didn't know, and didn't care anyway so really it didn't seem all that important after all. Besides, Bofur could tell from how old the scarring on the arm was that she must have been much younger when she gained this injury. There was a small point of silence that fell over the whole company, which Everin took readily as it gave her a small moment of respite and to finally think over what had happened over the past few days, since everything so far had just been sleep or action. But, there was a point that she lost control, and she didn't know what she did. Everin knew that no one had been hurt because of her, she took Thorin's word for it, but all the same she wondered what she did.

It was sort of like the other memories she had, except those memories she had in which she lost control, blurred so badly that it was almost seemingly blocked intentionally from her mind. All the same, even though she knew that it was all blocked from her for a reason, she had this want to tempt things she shouldn't and know what happened that night in her mind. She had the feeling that if she did ask the others what had happened, they wouldn't tell her, possibly because of something the Grey Wizard would have said to them while she was sleeping off that night. While she was busy trying to break through that barrier of her mind, that was probably put there for her own good, she overheard a sudden discussion going on between Thorin and Kili as they broke the silence.

"Uncle, we found a river nearby," Everin was definitely surprised to finally hear the connection between the two younger Dwarf brothers and Thorin, which did lead to her wondering more about the leader Dwarf, if he had a wife, or even children of his own. In fact, did the others in the company have their own children? Sure, she did know about Gloin and his family, but that was only because he never stopped talking of it if he got the chance, but the others she wasn't so sure. She was so busy noticing that fact, that she didn't realize the two Dwarves near her trying to get her attention until Bofur nudged a little roughly, unintentionally of course.

When she looked back she saw that Oin was actually already gone, most likely to join his brother and others of the company that had suddenly disappeared from their resting spot, presumably to go to the river that was found by the trio that was sent away before. She looked back to Bofur, and paid more attention to what he was trying to tell her. It seemed easier to turn her whole body now, more than likely thanks to the ointment on her back, which was still cooling down the heated wounds on her back, stoking the flames of pain in her (which Everin found very amusing to think of in that way.)

"Oin said you can go and clean up, just as long as you don't wash your back." She nodded in understanding and attempted to get up on her own, hissing in pain a little as she felt the scars straighten with the muscles on her back. Bofur, through immediate impulse, jumped up to help her in any way he could. However, because she was now standing straight and her head at least upright, Bofur could see more bones sticking a little out of her skin. She wasn't really that much of a frightening sight in her skinny appearance, but all the same it wasn't a good one to see that she had certainly at more than one point, gone completely without food. In fact, Bofur figured that she only looked thankfully more than a little less than completely and frighteningly starved, because of the food they had given her every night during this venture.

He didn't say anything though, mostly because he wasn't sure what he could say about this. Instead he helped to right herself and walked with her to the river, watching her the whole time as she was wrapping her arms around herself in a possible attempt to make herself feel better and less conscious about her appearance. They walked in more silence, the both of them looking in different directions from each other as they grew nearer and nearer to the river. Everin disliked the fact that Bofur thought she needed to be helped to the river, but all the same she did enjoy his company, and she was a bit more relaxed thanks to the cooled ointment that relived her stress, so she just let him lead her there.

They were at the river when they saw some of the Dwarves making their way back to the resting spot, Bifur clapping his hand on Bofur's shoulder and lead him away with the rest of the group, leaving Everin on her own as she slightly waved him off to stop his worrying. A few moments after the Dwarves of the company had left and Everin had been standing there on her own, she finally moved to the running body of water. Everin looked everywhere around her, just in case there was anyone still there, before finally allowing herself to relax and move her arms away from her torso and walk a bit into the cool water, letting it reach a bit past her ankle.

She caught sight of a rock that poked out of the water not that far away, and used it as a seat as she started cleaning her arms and hair. A lot of blood washed off her arms, blood she knew wasn't hers, but chose in that moment not to think about it all that much, instead focusing on cleaning herself. However, it seemed very hard to do when the smell assaulted her senses as she let the red flow into the river and drift away. Everin felt sick as the smell and sight of the blood went on, especially with one of her hands, which for some reason was more covered in the red substance than anything else on her person, even her hair. Eventually she figured that trying to not think about what happened was not going to work as she did want to know what happened. So she opened that thought, thinking hard to remember what that night, after she walked off that collapsing tree.

Then, that door opened in her mind.

Everin had to get up and walk away from the river, pressure building up in the bottom of her stomach as the stench only seemed to follow her wherever she went. It didn't take long for the heaviness to make her start heaving, and she threw up behind a tree nearby as the memories kept playing her head, in front of her eyes. Some time definitely had to pass before she was finished with her business behind the tree, and it was as she was coughing up the last of what she had in her stomach, that Everin felt a hand on her back. That frightened her so bad it made her nearly jump out of her skin as she looked back behind her to see who was there, and was surprised to see Bilbo.

The Hobbit didn't say anything as she continued a small bit longer in letting out the sick feeling in her stomach, then eventually stopped and got back on her feet, coughing a few more times before she finally managed to breath easily and form some words that she tried her hardest not to sound to exhausted or weak. Bilbo didn't look as out of place or awkward as she would expect someone who had just seen her cover a good part of the ground with the last remnants of food that was in her stomach. But then again, she assumed that he was just remaining silent to help her save face, and she took it gladly.

"Mr. Baggins, Sorry I didn't see you there," She muttered, her hand covering her mouth in case anything else happened, even though she felt emptier than she ever had in months. Which she found to be very strange, since this feeling of emptiness that she had now was once so familiar to her every day. Bilbo finally chose this moment to say something, but again he surprised her by still not mentioning what had just occurred, at least he didn't say anything about it just yet. Instead he only mentioned something else, and again she was left to wonder on the strange, yet polite mannerisms of Hobbits.

"Its fine, and you can call be Bilbo," Everin didn't say anything; she just nodded and smiled, since she still felt a little sick in her stomach. She sat down eventually, since she didn't know what might happen if she kept standing, since her legs did feel a little more than just weak in the knees. Bilbo joined her as she sat away from where they had been standing, sitting next to her as she tried to breathe deeply and push that feeling down further inside. However it was as they were sitting together that another of the company suddenly spawned from nowhere behind them both, and poor Everin nearly jumped out of her skin once again.

"Here Miss, you better drink this, wash the taste away," Ori hadn't meant to walk into this conversation between Everin and Bilbo, he was actually meaning to go and clean himself off in the river when he found her throwing up behind a rock and the Hobbit patting her back. At first he felt as though he should go back to the group, maybe tell Oin that she was feeling very ill, but then again he knew that she might have wanted some water or something, and he was supposed to be a Dwarven gentleman. So he stayed and waited for what he felt was an appropriate moment to help her and give her some water. And of course he did feel even more embarrassed about the situation since she was without her shirt, and the fact that he scared her didn't help much either.

However, she said nothing more of being frightened by the Dwarf, and instead just smiled in thanks at the offer of the water container that was offered to her, and took it gently from his hands, taking a small sip of the cool liquid as it soothed her burning throat, and washed away the horrid taste just as Ori had said. She handed the water container back, muttering a small thank you to him as she relaxed a little more where she was sitting, letting herself take a few more deep breaths before she got back on her feet, or attempted to.

Ori and Bilbo were kind enough to help her to her feet, as she was having a little difficulty as her knees were shaking. The memories from that night were still in her mind, and she was regretting the fact that she had tried so hard to remember what had happened. But all the same as she saw through them, she was still happy with the fact that she had gotten what she had wanted to see and know, and that was whether or not she actually had hurt any of the company that night, and thankfully, luckily, she saw that she didn't. And that was more of a fortunate thing than she felt that Thorin or any of the company really knew.

"I still have to wash myself off," She muttered, and they both helped her back to the river, though eventually she managed to get them to leave her to walk alone. Ori again thought of going back to the others, but still he didn't know is she was going to be okay, or if she was going to throw up again, even if it did seem as though she had thrown up everything she possibly could. Bilbo felt the same, so he and the younger Dwarf were left to stand together while she started to wash herself off again. It was while she was about to undo the wrapping across her chest that she realized the two were still there, and looked back to them.

"Umm, you can go now if you want…" They didn't move though, instead they sort of looked at their feet while she stared back at them. Eventually she just sighed, looking away across to the other side of the river for a while as she wondered why she had to travel with such people that had to care so much that they had to stick around to make sure she didn't choke on her own vomit while she was left on her own. She sighed, as she then thought on what she could do to make sure that she could bathe, and they could stay there to make sure she didn't do the whole choking thing that was mentioned previously, so she turned back and told them.

"Well, if you're going to stay, you might as well turn around, so I can still clean up." The two immediately turned around, though Everin could see the red on both of their faces while they did so. She chuckled a little at that, before going ahead and cleaning the rest of herself as fast as she could to save all three of them from the embarrassment that was going on at that moment, and save herself from any more sick feelings that would most definitely arise in her once more at the sight of red mixing with river water. She did turn her back on them at times, since she did trust them not to turn around or anything, since they were just as awkward about this as she was. It took a lot longer than she really had hoped it would, but eventually se was done, and put back on all the clothes she had placed a small bit aways from where she was cleaning herself off.

"Okay, I'm done now," Everin felt like a child needing the help and approval of a parent as the Hobbit and Dwarf walked towards her and held out their hands for her to take for them to help her out of the river. She shook her head and walked out herself, giving them a small smile before walking ahead of them, hearing their footsteps not that far behind her, so she knew they were following after her. Ori was the first to catch up beside her, still offering her his water container and asking her if she was okay, or if she still felt as though she was going to be sick again.

"I'm fine Ori, thank you," She mumbled as Bilbo caught up, Everin feeling a little awkward as she wasn't used to being worried over the way Ori was. The three of them walked back to the resting spot they had set up, it was a bit of a walk for them, so naturally they got to talking with each other over several different subjects. Eventually though, somewhere between them discussing Ori's hobby of knitting various strange things and, according to Bilbo, the best way to grow rhubarbs, they managed to bring up to her the fact that she had been violently sick only a few moments before. Everin sighed deeply while they prodded her and asked after all these various things that seemed to somehow lead to someone being as sick as she was only moments ago.

"Are you sure you didn't get hit in the head or anything like that?" Bilbo queried,

"Maybe it was something from the ointment that Oin gave you?" Ori pondered,

"No, it wasn't anything like that," Everin replied, looking upwards to the tree tops that were starting to appear the further they walked. The two looked to her immediately after she had spoken, their eyebrows simultaneously at the fact that she apparently knew exactly what had made her so sick. First thing that popped into their minds, and worried them instantly, was the thought that she had made herself be sick. Since the both of them hadn't seen her before she threw up, so that did seem like something that couldn't be disregarded as just a strange thought. After all, they had seen, along with the rest of the company, that she did have more than just a little of her bones being visible through her skin.

"W-what was it then?" The youngest of the Dwarves asked meekly, not wanting to hear the answer both he and the Hobbit were thinking, worrying and feared over. Everin gave him a look of worry, which she suspiciously received in return from the Dwarf as they walked on and she finally told them what actually happened. The answer they received from Everin did soothe some of their worries, but only some of course, since there was now, new worries created for them through her explanation. Her voice didn't change from the low muttering that she was doing at that moment, her sight occasionally moving from them, to the ground and the sky in awkwardness and slight shame.

"It… I was trying to remember something, and then I did," By that time they had reached the others and it seemed as though Everin was fine with dropping the conversation right then and there as she walked off to where she had left her pack, shirt and cloak. She gently lifted the article of clothing that she had left on the ground, wiping nonexistent dirt away from the grey material. Of course, as she did that, the obvious holes were not missed by her, and she sighed silently to herself as she slipped her hand inside, the hole being much bigger than she expected, especially since she could fit her whole arm through. This was no good for her, especially since it was the only shirt she had, all she really had was the clothes on her back (that she actually stole before this quest,) and the pack that the company had given her.

While she was thinking however, she didn't notice the fact that others in the company (who to be fair, she did have her back to so she wouldn't have seen them,) had also noticed the fact that she was inspecting the holes in her shirt. She also didn't notice one of them come forward, until they took the shirt out of her hands. Everin quickly turned to glare complete daggers at who had done that, and of course it was poor Ori that received that glare as he was unfortunate enough to be the one to receive that glare as he was the one to take the shirt from her, and give to his brother, Nori to look at and see if he could fix. The Witch's glare faltered when she saw the youngest of the company, and she sighed before looking to the ground for a moment, then looking back up at the sound of Nori's voice.

"There's more holes than there is material, I don't think this is repairable," He said, more to the others than to her as he handed the shirt (or as it should be called now, a piece of shredded material,) back to Everin. The Witch took a deep sigh and folded the shredded material to the best that she could make it, and placed it on her pack, leaving her to just use her arms to still cover her torso to feel somewhat comfortable in her situation. By this time the sun was setting and it was obvious that everyone wanted to just camp here for the night and sleep off their exhaustion that still seemed to linger in them all, even after two nights of sleep.

After a few minutes of begging and subtle mentions form the more elder Dwarves, Thorin finally gave in and told them that fine, they could stay here and set up camp, but there would have to be two people together in night watches. Everyone was apparently so tired that they didn't care and agreed to the condition, all of them setting up their bed rolls first before anything. Everin wanted to get the fire set up as quickly as possible, especially since she wasn't just tired, but also hungry. As soon as she, Dwalin and Bombur were finished getting the wood together and setting it all up, she clicked her fingers before the tinder box was ever brought out, lighting the wood up in seconds.

"Thank you lass," Bombur sighed as she walked back to her bed roll, especially since he actually wasn't all that great at using a tinder box, the last time he had done it on a previous night, he'd almost set his cousin's beard alight. Thankfully he didn't have to do that again this night, so he quickly tucked the tinder box back in the pack he got it from, almost as if he expected it to set itself on fire in his hands. His brother, who was sitting next to Everin at this point, did know this fact, and smiled cheeringly to his kin as the Witch sat next to him, Bombur not making any comment besides a small glare of humorous sarcasm to Bofur.

Food was made and ready in no time, the company was pretty adamant on that front as they all agreed, they were hungry. The food was a compilation of anything they had managed to keep from the escape from the Goblin Caves, and whatever Kili, Ori and Bilbo had managed to find while they were out looking, which was mostly just rabbits and a few birds, but still it was all better than nothing. Everin always enjoyed the smell of the dinner at the nights, the slight smell of the different spices and herbs that Bombur would add to the food. It made her feel warmer inside before she had even eaten the food, pushing away for that moment, any off feelings she still had in her stomach at that time. Bofur looked over at her in that moment, watching her smile softly with her eyes closed and taking deep breaths in order to sample that smell for even longer.

"Looking forward to it Evie?" He grinned, and she smiled back at him, looking a little shy in how hungry she really was, and how much she enjoyed the smell of the food in that moment. But he ignored that, instead continuing to smile to her before getting up to help his brother with preparing the food. Everin remained where she was, still sitting and taking in the warmth from the fire and the smell of the food, taking a moment out from that activity to dig out her cloak and slip it around her shoulders, since it was getting a little colder in the night, despite the fire and the warming smells of the food. She shivered a little under the cloak, but other than that she was fine as the food was finally done and she felt a warmed bowl being gently pushed into her hands, the hat wearing Dwarf sitting back down next to her after he had done so.

"Thank you," she muttered, sipping a little from the spoon and feeling it warm down in her stomach, more so than the smell did before hand. Everin smiled again, feeling relaxed more than she had for quite a while. She would have, to further exemplify how relaxed she was, leaned back on the tree that was not that far behind her, but the injuries on her back were certainly not forgotten, so she didn't do that. Her eyes closed again, but that was mostly to block the creepy stares of both Ori and Bilbo as they watched her eat the food, no doubt worried that she might throw it all back up again. While this was going on, she noticed, in between the soft singing, laughter and usual merriment that usually went on while they were camping, (though they always made sure not to be too loud in their activities, not just for the fact to keep themselves incognito of their venture, but also the fact that Thorin had a very scary tone when he wanted them to be quite down,) that there was an assembly of jokes made to poke direct fun at Elves, and Elves alone.

They weren't all that great, mostly references to the fact that there was more meat in the food than the, in their words, 'Tree shagging wise ones,' could possibly deal with. Everin knew there was some dislike between Dwarves and Elves, and she thought that was just nature and whatever, but she sensed there was something different here, a dislike, or possible hatred that had a real story behind it, and she figured it should be worth telling if they hated the Elves so much. She turned to ask Bofur after this, who at this point was laughing with his brother about something or other that she figured was related to these Elf jokes, she was asking him, but her voice was raised a little higher so that it was asked to everyone else.

"Why do you hate Elves so much?"

A tangent silence fell over the company, all of them looking everywhere except at her, and Thorin for some reason. The leader of the group said nothing, but just walked a bit aways from them all, leaving the Witch to wonder and worry if she had offended him in a way, but that didn't seem to be the case as no one else stated so, nor talked at all. Balin was the one to break the silence, placing his bowl of food on the ground before looking back up at her, and though she couldn't see any anger in his eyes, his brother, who sat next to him, was the complete opposite, fury radiating through his irises as he stared into the fire in front of them, that burned just as intensely while the story was told.

"Well lass, as I'm sure you know, Elves and Dwarves have never fully gotten along, no one really knows why, but then again that might just be nature. However, there was one time; during the days that Erebor was seen over by the King Thror, that there was a time of peace between the two. Whenever the Lonely Mountain was running low of food, since it wasn't exactly well known for its fertile soil or anything, we would trade gems or stones with the elves in return for such things." Everin noticed the expressions of the Dwarves around her, sampling in their different reactions to the words that was murmured by the white bearded as the night and story wore on. Some of them didn't seem as affected by the story and the mentions of the Elves than others, who she also noticed were the eldest out of the group.

Thorin was long gone, having walked away to somewhere else to no doubt not hear a word of this story. Everin didn't want to ask after why he was gone, thinking that it was going to break the mood, or even cut off the story altogether. So instead she sat and as said before, watched the expressions of the company around her, the eldest as also said before, were furious and weren't even trying to hide it, those people being Oin, his brother, Dwalin and Dori. The youngest of the group (Kili, Fili and Ori,) looked very awkward, as if they should be angry, just like their elders, but for some reason she could see that they were faltering, second guessing and doubting. Whether that was a good sign or not was not something she could comment on, having opinions of Elves herself. The others that were in the middle were exactly that, in the middle of all of this. Anger showed on some of them, but with others, (like Bofur and his kin,) they were just blank, staring into the fire as she could see memories and images in their minds of what was or what they think could have occurred.

"Over a few days however, that all changed. The days just before Smaug attacked," Balin was interrupted by his brother getting up and walking away altogether, his overall demeanor just seething with anger that just emitted off of him like smoke from fire. Others watched him as Dwalin went to no doubt join his King, but made no comment, instead looking back to Balin, expectant for him to continue. He complied, letting the slight crackling of the fire being the only other noise in the clearing other than his lowered voice as the story continued, and the real meat of the reasoning behind the strange, simmering hatred that they seemed to have with Elves was starting to be revealed, but all the same there was something else that she knew was coming up that must be far worse to warrant such dislike.

"There was a meeting again between the King Thror and Elf King, but for some reason, be it they wanted their pay for free, or something else, the meeting ended with unsettled feelings on both sides. The bad blood between the two never got the chance to be wiped clean, as a few days later, Smaug attacked the Mountain. It was while we were running for our lives, trying our best to take the live and wounded with us, when we saw them. The Elves were above us, watching us flee and doing nothing. Their King was with them, but he turned his back, and left us to escape the dragon fire alone." Everin felt uneasiness in her stomach, which she knew full well wasn't from the food she was eating, as the warmth in her stomach began to turn to ice and fear.

"Elf King?" She muttered as she tried to press the spoon to her lips, trying not to notice the strange look she received from Balin and the others, but all the same he answered her obvious question, her reaction more suspicious and surprising than they had ever expected. The muttering of the words that was the Elf King's name caused her too accidentally inhaled the food on the spoon as she was actually gasping. She choked on the soup getting caught in her throat, coughing and sputtering for a moment before taking a deep breath and calming herself down, the ice in the pit of her stomach, that had frozen away the warmth she had, growing until it caused a lump in her throat that she also knew wasn't a small bone, just like she knew that name wasn't a coincidence.

"King Thranduil,"

"Are you alright lass?" She felt Bombur's large hand on her back, trying to pat the trouble out of her, but she just nodded her head as soon as a normal breath managed to enter and exit her without being accompanied by pain and coughing. She sat straight again, having hunched over a small bit in pain. Apparently this was one of the worse moments for her as she looked up, she saw Thorin and Dwalin suddenly back where they were seated before they left. Gandalf and Bilbo were also there, in fact they had been there the entire time, she supposed though that she had just been ignoring them, instead focusing on the story that was being told. She only gained attention to the Hobbit, when he suddenly squeaked out a question to her in the middle of the silence.

"Do you know him?"

"I-I" Nothing, there was nothing she could say, the lump of fear in her throat seemingly cutting off her words, she just couldn't say it. There was also the fact that memories were starting to play back in her head, recollections that filled her with nothing but more cold, more sadness, more fear, leaving only a whisper of what was once the warmth in her beforehand. Gandalf was watching her face, the expressions that were so small that they passed in seconds, the hands that were shaking, but all the same he knew he couldn't miss them as he had to help her.

_Please don't! Please!_

"Miss Everin…" Her hands that were, as stated before, shaking so bad, that they couldn't miss the fact that her nails were growing longer, just like they did on that night the Orcs attacked. But with the nails, the temperature started to grow colder, the fire starting to flicker and dim with only a few seconds of time, but they only started to really notice when her hands started to tinge blue. Suddenly, before the situation could escalate any more, the Grey Wizard suddenly appeared behind her, his ancient hand dropping on her shoulder, apparently unaffected by how cold she really was at that moment. He tried to mask his worry with a cheerful disposition, the very tone of his voice apparently causing whatever she was doing to fade away very quickly, her nails even growing back to its usual length.

"Perhaps it's time we rest, we are meant to be taking off first light," His hand didn't move, and everyone gladly took that gesture to escape this conversation, which was apparently going places that it didn't need to. Gandalf then removed his hand, leaving the Witch to lie down on her Bed roll as he walked off; no doubt to do something that he wasn't going to tell anyone in the company about. Bofur was situated on one side of her, Ori on the other, but neither attempted to converse with her, as it was obvious that she was tired and not in the talking mood at all, so they just settled down to rest themselves.

* * *

Some time passed after that, Everin spending it lying on her stomach and attempting to get some kind of sleep since she had the feeling that she was going to be on night watch pretty soon, and wanted to get some rest while she had the chance. Of course she was interrupted at times by one or two of the Dwarves burping, singing or laughing a slight bit louder than she expected, but she had by that point, gotten use to it. She had been traveling with them for so long at this point, that it seemed easier now to sleep (as soundlessly as she possibly could with the scars she had,) without being constantly awakened from their talking, singing and overall merriment, like she use to be when their venture first started. But then again, she wasn't in a tree where the sound would rise upward like beforehand.

However, and rather contrastingly, she was stopped from falling completely asleep when the company suddenly went absolutely silent. Her head popped up from the face down position she had done before, and looked around to see what had suddenly silenced them so fast. They were all looking to the Grey Wizard, and the only Dwarf not being dead silent, (not that she was surprised,) Thorin, arguing under what at the beginning was hushed breaths. Since they both knew well enough how tired the company was, and didn't want to disturb them, but eventually grew to louder tones since their opposing views never seemed to be able to align for whatever reason.

What they were arguing about was apparently something important to everyone, since they had, all simultaneously gone completely silent at the first raised word from their leader. But unlike the Witch, Thorin and Gandalf had failed to notice the silence that had fallen over the camp, instead they continued with their argument, so Everin got to find out what all the fuss was really about. And just like the others, she was surprised into silence, but there was a different reason behind it unlike the rest of the company. Her hands, that were holding the edges of the bed roll when she sat herself up to see what was going on, curled inwards over the bed roll material, her knuckles turning white. Her breathing was becoming irregular, nervous sweat trailed down her back and on her forehead, but no one noticed, since they were too busy watching the argument between their leader and the Grey Wizard.

"We cannot go in there, that place is too dangerous, and we have been through enough," Some of the Dwarves softly nodded their heads in agreement, so Everin figured they already knew what the two were arguing about and she had missed it. The argument didn't stop there of course, as apparently Gandalf didn't want the Dwarf King to have the last word in this, and so he replied. The more this debate/argument went on, the more Everin didn't like the sound of it, as it sounded far too familiar for her liking. The Dwarves next to her hadn't noticed that she was awake, which was apparently a good thing, as they were now standing a small bit in front of her, blocking her view of the debate going on between Gandalf and their leader.

"You will only waste more time that you do not have if you go around it, you must go through it if you wish to reach the Mountain on time," His voice was trying to remain restrained, which was obviously a hard thing to do when arguing with stubborn headed Dwarves. The company seemed to agree with that statement as well, but all the same it was apparent that they were not exactly absolutely jumping with enthusiasm to go to this place. Everin had a feeling of what they were talking about, but all the same she had to hope, with the smallest part in her that she had, that they weren't talking about what she thought.

"All the same, we will not follow the paths invented by Elves," That hope was dying fast, and it was buried in an early grave with what the Grey Wizard said next.

"The Mirkwood is your only chance!" The ice froze over in her stomach, and the fear came back in record timing. She sat up fully, the two Dwarves beside her then becoming aware of her being awake, but she was not noticing them, instead looking directly to the Grey Wizard as he stalked away from the ineffective argument. Only a few small seconds passed before she was on her feet and following after him, not about to let him walk away from her when she had something to ask after him. He stopped in a clearing a bit away from the camping spot, probably because he became aware that she was furiously running after his large gait.

"Miss Everin-" He didn't get to say much else as she let out what she wanted to say, her voice a little louder than she probably should have done if she so wanted to keep this discussion between just her and the Wizard. But then again she was upset; she was over emotional and not thinking about that, instead all she thought about was confronting Gandalf over what was going on, or what was going to happen. Her voice was just as emotional as she was in her head, but that was obvious that she didn't give one damn about that, nor if one or two of the company were moving forward and peeking around tree trunks to watch the spectacle.

"The Mirkwood!?" She shouted, cutting the Wizard off before he could mutter anything to her that would make her less fearful than she felt. Her hands were shaking more than thought necessary, the nails growing longer once more as the clearing grew colder and colder in moments, the Wizard apparently not noticing such a significant change, and if Everin noticed, she was very good at covering it up. The company that were watching her, and only being able to hear her voice as she was the loudest out of them all, were actually surprised at how emotional she was getting, as she had never given them this kind of reaction before, but then again that might have been contributed to the fact that she didn't talk allot either.

"You know I hate that place, you know I can't stand it," She hissed, backing away from him whenever he made the attempt to get closer to her to calm her down. Her hand unintentionally touched a trunk of a tree while this was happening, causing a sudden burst of ice to soar up the tree, covering the very first of its branches before she removed her hand again, looking at the damage with a strange sense of annoyance that didn't really fit the situation. She turned back to Gandalf, her emotions remaining unchanged as she continued where she left off, not even looking to the tree she had frozen over.

"There is no other way,"

"Sure there was, for instance you could have told me that we were going there, I don't know, maybe before this venture started," Gandalf said nothing for a short moment, leaving her to just stand there and wait for something, anything that the Grey Wizard could say in return in order to explain away this fact for her, but nothing came. The company that was listening to some of this conversation, was left to wonder whether or not she actually would have signed that contract and come with them if she had known about Mirkwood, or anything else that had happened already, but apparently it seemed that would not have been the case. Some of the Dwarves moved away and back to the camping site, having heard apparently enough for their tastes, others moving off because they felt the conversation had gone to territories that really, they shouldn't have been listening to. The others that had stayed, those being only a few, got the chance to be there to listen to the rest of the conversation as Everin finally grew tired of the silence.

"Why did you ask this of me? Why am I here?" She held her arms up, waiting for something again. And while that was happening, she also began to ask that of herself, looking in and wondering why she had come so far for something that had nothing to do with her, why she even cared. It wasn't as if she had never been asked to help defend something, or take back a world before, so what made such a difference to her now that she would have come this far with them, and might actually want to go further, despite her fear of the evil forest ahead? What made this so important that she couldn't just walk away? It was while she was thinking this over, that the Grey Wizard did eventually reply, but of course that did nothing to help her or ease her thoughts that had suddenly guided themselves to a new subject, and only made her angrier.

"You owed me a debt as you once seemed very adamant in remembering,"

"Oh please that has nothing to do with this now and you know it. Don't skip over the real reasoning, that would be just insulting me. You know there are other magic makers in this world that could and would do this, and leave everyone in less danger than they are with me. This is my life we're talking about, my fear. Don't mix words, and don't turn this against me, I am asking you for something simple, an explanation, and you can't do even that for me." She seemed more sarcastic, more hurt in that one moment than she had ever done before as she waited for a reply from Gandalf again, and the thought of having to wait for something that was actually shouldn't be so difficult or hard to ask after, made her only more angry and hurt.

"I believe the question you truly have is why you have stayed, why you care?" That was just one question for this night, and now she was angry that she was thinking over what he had said even more, since she really did want to know the answer behind that. Because it was truthful somewhat that whatever reason the Grey Wizard had for bringing her to this point didn't matter, as she also had a hand in her coming this far, as it wasn't as if she could have walked away from this at any time. She could have walked away from them all a long time ago, before to Goblin town, before Rivendell. But for some reason, she stayed, even after she was banished from the Homely House. And for some reason, she took pain for them as well, she allowed herself to be tortured, just to stop that from being done to someone else.

She had never done that before, so why did she do then? What was different? The things she did know, she said and made sure to breathe a little bit more, the anger for some reason leaving her system as she answered calmly, even though she didn't like the fact that's she had to be the first one to give an answer on this night, on this conversation. The Dwarves that were still listening, were given some hope at her staying as she talked, her voice even and careful for the first time that night that they had been arguing together. But what no one knew, was that even though the anger was fading away from her, the fear was most definitely still there, and only growing the more she spoke.

"I know… I know it isn't because of the debt, or the contract, or even the song they sang but…" She didn't know anything else, and it was scaring her the more she talked, the more she opened her mind and let someone else know what she thought, about something she wasn't sure of. Her hands were still shaking and it was still getting colder, her hands tinged blue once more, but her nails had gone back to an original length. So it seemed that at least the threat of her losing her control was gone for the moment, but there was still the cold to be worried about. Gandalf replied back to her, in what the company that was listening in, guessed was an attempt to calm her so she wouldn't be so fearful.

"Perhaps you tire of being alone, of pushing people away because you claim yourself 'unsafe', you tire of having to protect everyone and perhaps, you want to let someone in," That was apparently the wrong thing to say as she only grew even more frightful and wanted to only have more space between her and the Wizard, backing away and hugging herself. Her back at one point hit a tree, and ice spread once more, even faster and higher up the bark and trunk. She jumped away from the tree, and began breathing even more irregularly, that the company wondered if she was in actuality, crying. Gandalf didn't stop there however, and gave her one last question.

"Will you join them in the Mirkwood, or is this as far as you will go?"

"I don't know… I don't… I need to go for a while; I need to be alone…" She ran, jumping up off of a rock and up into a tree, staying there only a few seconds as she looked back down, and saw some of the Dwarves watching her. Before she jumped off to another tree, continuing this action until she disappeared into the darkness, her cloak bellowing behind her as she went. Gandalf waited a moment in the now empty, but still ice covered clearing, before walking back to the camp site alone, the other Dwarves that had been listening moving back to their places quickly before the Wizard could ask anything of them for eavesdropping. Thorin had not gotten up from his place the whole time, apparently not needing to as they could all have heard the discussion from their places anyway. He looked up as Gandalf walked past, not needing to ask his question as his expression said it all.

"Do not fret Master Dwarf, she is not far and she will be fine. Miss Everin will not abandon you," He looked out amongst the trees, not missing the small shadow jumping between them not that far away from the campsite, and gave a sad smile, before continuing, muttering one last thing mostly to himself as he pulled his pipe to his lips.

"Despite what she may think herself,"

* * *

**Please review, constructive criticism always welcome. **


	8. Chapter 8

Gandalf was, as always, correct in saying that she would not be far away, as she stopped running as soon as she was a bit aways from them. Letting herself fall out of the tree, and into the fern covered floor below, not caring for the scratches she gained, or the fact that the scars on her back burned once more. She curled up in a ball as soon as she knew that nothing was broken from the careless act, sniffling pitifully to herself as she squeezed her eyes shut, letting herself drift off to a somewhat state of rest, that was certainly not comfortable, but all the same, she didn't feel as though she deserved any better.

* * *

"Shouldn't we go after her Gandalf? There might be Orcs out there, or vengeful Goblins." Nori asked to the Grey Wizard, watching as he continued to smoke on his pipe, the ancient man somehow more relaxed than anyone else in that moment. Even Bilbo was apparently bothered by all of this, and he and the Witch barely ever traded words together. Bofur was obviously worried sick, his trademark smile, that she herself had called 'nice', was nowhere to be seen on his face any longer, as he was seen constantly looking above in the tree tops and the branches, hoping to see her there so he could convince her to join them in the warmth of the fire again, the frown on his face only growing deeper whenever he had to look from one tree to another with no Everin in sight.

"Miss Everin knows what she is doing; she can take care of herself and has done so for many years, more than you might believe. Besides, she needs, as she said herself, some time alone to think over pressing matters in her mind," And they had no doubt that Everin could take care of herself, but all the same, there was still unease in them all as they sat in silence for a few moments, worry eating away at them like the fire burned lowly at the kindle they threw in every so often, the orange flame slowly dying over time. Bilbo, Ori and Oin were especially worried, but for vastly different reasons altogether. Oin was obviously worried for the reason that everyone knew about, the injuries on her back. But the two of the youngest of the group were left to wonder on whether or not they should say what had seen earlier in the day. It was something they knew was her business, but all the same it was worrying to them as they still didn't fully know why that happened, or whether or not she was doing that now, to hurt herself.

"But how can she be fine with the injuries on her back? That are still not fully healed yet, they could get infected," Fili grumbled from next to his brother, the other Dwarves nodding in agreement to that statement. Bilbo and Ori looked to each other, the both of them having the same look together, should they say something? What would happen if they did know, what would change? Maybe they would go and look for her, but then again maybe not, and then her privacy would be compromised for no real reason or gain. But all the same they had to try to get them to look for her, as even if Gandalf had felt as though she could look after herself, she was still hurt inside and that would do nothing to help her if she had to protect herself on her own.

But the Wizard said nothing as he walked a bit further off, sucking on his pipe and blowing small smoke rings as he was apparently thinking to himself. It was at this time that the fire finally decided to go out, and since there was no Everin there to restart it again, the company took that as a sign that it was time to rest, Thorin muttering something about them all needing their strength tomorrow before he ordered Nori and his older brother to be the first for night watch. As they all, bar two of course, settled down for the night, the bed rolls all occupied, apart from three. The older brother of Ri watched their younger as he settled into sleep, neither of them missing for one second the look of worry on his youthful face, a look that was shared by everyone.

"She's got poor Ori worried sick, and everyone else for that matter," Dori muttered as he searched through Gloin's pack for the tinderbox, his brother remaining sitting on the log they had been ordered to night watch from, but he did not hum in agreement, instead looked to his brother and voiced his disagreement. Nori and Dori had never really gotten along, which was mostly because of Dori's dislike for Nori's profession and Nori's dislike for Dori mothering over him. So of course it wasn't at all surprising that they would have different opinions on most matters, even the members of their company. Dori listened patiently to his brother's other view while he tried to relight the fire, muttering something under his breath on occasion that the tinderbox must be malfunctioning, to put it in better words than what the elder Dwarf actually muttered.

"Ah, but brother, she wouldn't have run off in the first place if our Wizard was a bit more forth coming with her on our next destination," They both looked to Gandalf, who was (maybe?) sleeping in a bed roll that mysteriously appeared from nowhere, just for both of them to make sure that the Wizard wasn't listening t their conversation before they continued, but with hushed voices this time around. This was a rare occurrence however, as most discussions between these two that was about heir differencing opinions, would turn quickly into a shouting match with no holds barred, apart from Ori standing in between them. They hadn't whispered to each other in many years, since they were smaller Dwarflings, but neither of them seemed to notice that as their discussion/debate seemed too interesting to notice such a fact.

"Still running off like that seems very dangerous, especially with the injuries she has," Dori whispered to his star braided brother, finally managing to light a small fire for them to see if anything through the darkness of the forest they were in. Nori looked back at his youngest brother, thinking back through the hardships they had recently been through, one specific memory being very carefully looked over before he turned back to his older brother, and voiced a logical reply to Dori's argument as they both were still looking to their youngest of kin and in the company. While this was happening, none of them noticed that Everin's pack, bed roll and shredded material that was once her shirt disappeared as soon as the light of the fire was relit.

"And again you forget, how she got those injures in the first place," Because she protected their brother, that wasn't said aloud, but it didn't have to be as they both knew that well enough, and were completely grateful for it, probably more than she would know. They remembered how upset Ori had been when they were forced to watch her being 'punished' by the Goblins, often burying his head in his brother's shoulders as they tried to hide him, shield him from the terrible sight, but that one scream she released when the whip cracked down on her back was hard to be unheard again. She never screamed again, but that didn't matter as everyone heard that first one and the cracks of the whips as they continued after that, the Goblins shoving Ori away from his brothers and making him watch the terrible sight every time he tried to look away.

Ori wasn't the only one that tried to look away of course, the youngest of the Durin line also tried that, but every time one of the Goblins caught sight of them trying to turn their eyes from Everin and her pain, they would grab their heads and force them to look, their laughter shoved right into their ears. To watch as whip would crack down on her back and blood would seep from seemingly invisible cuts, seeing the slight spasms of her shoulders from the intense pain, but there was never another noise from her mouth again. The ones that didn't turn their heads from her, watched her pain with anger and sickness growing in their hearts and stomachs, glaring heated fury to the Goblin King, swearing and cursing horrible fates on the foul creature under their breaths, and aloud when they got the chance.

"Miss Everin still shouldn't be on her own," Dori didn't sound annoyed anymore, but worried just like everyone else. Nori smiled and sat quietly again, watching the trees above them as he swore on that night he could see the shadowy sight of someone jumping through the trees, watching over them with a pack and cloak that seemed very familiar on their back. But he didn't mention this to his brother; as he liked the veil of silence that feel between the two of them, since such things barely ever happened for their family. A few more hours passed between them as they were off into their own thoughts, Dori thinking back on that night, while Nori every so often looked to the sleeping form of young brother, wondering if he was still hurt by what happened that day.

* * *

Balin and Dwalin were next for night watch, and really they were surprised to see the older brother of the family Ri to be so calm when they had to night watch together, since the last time they had too do that they were seen not speaking to each other for many days afterwards. The two were left, just like Nori and Dori were, to sit on a log and watch over the rest of the group. Naturally they assumed that the two Dwarves before them were discussing the current situation with their only female member of their company, since it really was something to talk about, what with her having a loud argument with the Grey Wizard of Middle Earth and walking away from it in one piece, and freezing plenty of trees in her wake. They did try for a little while into their watch, to not talk about it since it was something that they both saw as none of their business, but it eventually became apparent that they weren't going to talk about anything else, so one of them grew tired of the quiet, and spoke up.

"Miss Everin is obviously very adamant in not going into that forest with us, perhaps she may leave our company," Dwalin muttered to his kin as he looked over his axes, watching the slight fire glint light off of the iron. Balin looked to his brother for a moment, surprised that he would be the one to start that conversation, but all the same grateful for it since he was thinking over what he could say to begin that discussion himself. The oldest of the pair at first shrugged his shoulders in reply, until it became obvious that his brother wouldn't have seen it, since they were back to back, so he gave a verbal reply instead.

"We don't know that for certain, all we can do is wait for something to happen, whether she comes back or not, that's on her. I worry for the some of the company; they have grown close to her, despite her best efforts apparently to keep anyone and everyone away from her. They will miss her if she leaves, and that will weigh down on them for the rest of this venture, especially on their spirits," He spoke wisely, not giving any one sided opinion on his thoughts of whether or not she would fully return to their company, because as he said, that was her choice. Dwalin grunted in reply, agreeing with his brother and deciding that they should just wait for whatever will happen, but they both knew that they hoped, and would not say aloud, that she would stay, because as they said, despite her best efforts, the company did care.

* * *

It had taken a bit more than they expected on both Bifur and Bombur's part to get their other member of kin to go to sleep. Eventually he did give and went to bed like they asked, but they didn't fail to see him move his bed roll closer to her's perhaps he was hoping that he would catch her going back to it as some point in the night. But that didn't happen, and Bofur drifted off before her belongings suddenly disappeared when the fire went out. He was woken up when it was his turn for night watch by his brother, and looked over at the now empty space in only more worry. Bofur stood from where he was lying down and looked around the area, hoping that it was just a fact of someone else before him packing it all up for them to deal with later, but it was gone, all of it. The shredded material that was meant to be a shirt, her bed roll, the pack itself (or what was left of it, after the Goblins took nearly everything out of it), all of it was gone.

"Where did it all go?" He asked to his brother, as if the poor Dwarf would actually know himself. Bombur just shrugged in reply and told his kin to sit down and relax, that no one in the company was going to steal her belongings, of all things. After realizing that was obvious, Bofur sat next to his brother and they continued on the silence that the past few night watchers had done before them. But of course, just as with Balin and Dwalin, the silence became too much to bear, and they got to talking. Their subject of course, being just another thing they had in common with the night watchers before them.

"So…" Bombur sighed into the quiet, cutting it off so the conversation would have to start, and he looked to his brother as he continued, being sure to carefully choose his next words as he didn't want to insult his brother, or anything like that. Bofur's expression didn't really change all that much, until his brother brought up the Witch, then Bombur swore he could see some worry starting to mix in his eyes, and the Dwarf was left to wonder why his brother was hiding it away from him. Bofur also shifted a little bit, his eyes once again shooting to the treetops, and maybe it was trick of the small firelight, but he swore he could see a shadowy figure looking back down at him.

"You seem very worried about Miss Everin brother," He hadn't meant to have anything subtle behind it, but it did come out that way, which was probably why he was hiding it. Though of course was the larger Dwarf didn't know was that he was actually hiding how fretted over her he really was, because their leader was awake this whole time, and had been woken up thanks to the hat wearing Dwarf's scrambling around to find her missing belongings, and Bofur of course only found that out as soon as he sat down on the log next to his brother. Bombur got to find this out not that long afterwards of course, by Thorin suddenly speaking through the darkness of where he was sitting up in his bed roll and staring blankly to the two Ur brothers.

"As does everyone else tonight it seems, Master Bombur," He had woken up times tonight, and got the chance to hear the small parts of the conversation between them all as they seemed to have the same topic in mind, Everin and the apparent fact that they either thought she was going to be hurt even more on her own, or the possibility that she might leave their company before reaching the forest she hated so much. In his own opinion, he had doubt that she would continue on with them, mostly because she herself had no idea why she had stayed with them, or whether or not she was going to continue to do so into the Mirkwood.

"It seems all of you are too busy discussing your worries and frets over our Witch, that night watch has now become the time for gossiping," The others in the company might have been awake at this time, and they may not be, Thorin didn't know for sure but all the same if they were, the message was just the same for them as well. Some of the Dwarves seemed to shrink a little in their Bed rolls, so Thorin knew that some or a few were awake at least to hear this. The two Ur brothers looked especially embarrassed by it all; looking at the ground with red tints in their faces, a trait shared by the others as they pointedly looked away from the meant to be King Under the Mountain.

"Sorry your Majesty," Bombur muttered, his brother nodded in agreement and breathed a silent sigh of relief as he laid back down, muttering one last thing to them both to keep their eyes around the area and not just on the ground. They did so, and remained in another gap of silence which lasted much, much longer than all the other gaps of silence that had happened between the other night watching pairs. But, since it was apparent that Dwarves could conceive themselves to be absolutely quiet for more an hour at a time, Nori had to sit up in his bed roll, once he was sure that Thorin was asleep first of course, and grinned to the two brothers, the question he asked them both being a little less than what they had expected.

"Well, now that I've got the chance to ask… What's your opinion of our Witch?"Now the subtext behind his question was definitely well meant, and it only made the Dwarf brothers grow a darker shade of red and sputter a few words when they were saved by Dori suddenly sitting up and smacking his younger, star hair-shaped brother upside the head, as he deserved. Apparently the words of their leader had not truly pushed Nori out of 'gossiping' as Thorin had called it, since he did looked especially interested in what everyone had to say on the subject, and not the least bit influenced either by the smack from his brother. But they all were more surprised when the next one to actually speak up and add his opinion wasn't any of the Ur or Ri Dwarves, but by Fili, his brother also sitting up to join them.

"She's too thin and tall for me really, not enough facial hair or anything like that. Though she does have a nice face about her, and you can't deny, she is very strong, and a good fighter too, especially when she's angry." Fili whispered confidently, (so as to not awaken his already grumpy Uncle,) the other Dwarves humming in agreement while making their own small (And whispered,) comments about both Everin, and their own preference in females while they were at it. Other Dwarves in the company that had previously been trying to feign sleep sat up themselves, and joined in the conversation as well.

"I don't know, thin and tall doesn't seem all that bad to me, it's just the lack of facial hair however, that's left me out," Nori replied to the heir of the Durin line, scratching a little at the back of his neck as he could feel a bit of a glare coming from Dwalin aimed directly to the back of his head. His brother glared at him from beside him as well, and was no doubt about to say something about it, when he was suddenly interrupted from that, just before it could happen, by Ori of all people. The youngest of the company looked a little shy, but still managed to voice out his opinion even though he was looking to the old fur on his boots.

"I-I like the lines on her skin," He felt twelve eyes on him immediately, and fidgeted like one would in that situation as he continued, "I mean, they're really strange and… different, in a good way though. And when they glow, they sort of illuminate the dark, and it's nice." Nori slapped his brother on the back in encouragement, but Dori just smacked his star shape haired brother upside the head once more, which accomplished nothing but a sarcastic chuckle from the Dwarf Thief. At that moment Bofur noticed that most of the company was now looking to him, his own kin included. He looked back at them for a silent moment, and eventually Nori spoke up.

"What do you think Bofur?" The hat wearing Dwarf only looked confused as a reply, but the Dwarf thief just looked back to him in anticipation. The others however, seemed to have the same look as Nori as they waited for what Bofur would say, even Bombur. When it became apparent that he didn't know why on Middle Earth they would care for his opinion of the Witch, Nori sat straighter and clarified it for him. What the Thief said made Bofur suddenly clue in on why they wanted to know on what his stance with Everin was in reality, and what he thought of women in particular.

"She said you had a nice smile,"

"N-no that was just…" His stutter of the moment was probably not helping him in the slightest bit, Nori's all knowing grin being a good sign of that. That grin was very much shared by others in the company, though they gave more of an effort to try and hide it than Nori ever did. Bofur hung his head after a while, hearing the small snickers of the supposedly adult Dwarfs around him until he heard the Dwarf Thief ask something else from him, leaving the company in expectant silence, listening for anything that might be said, or muttered under his breath.

"There must be something you like about her."

"Nori just-"

"So there is something?"

"…"

"…"

"If I say something will you stop staring at me?"

"Perhaps…"

"*sigh*fine, I like her hair,"

"The hair on her head?"

"Yes Fili, the hair on her head. It flows in the wind and shines in the light, like all hair does, but her hair is more beautiful than any I've seen on a woman in a while," A hush fell over the company again after Bofur's admition, for various reasons for each Dwarf of course. Nori looked absolutely smug over it all, mostly because he had a feeling that a certain someone was looking over this conversation, and had been all along (which was kind of his reason for doing this anyway, as he wanted to give her confidence in the fact that they did want her around.) He hoped this conversation had done the job he was hoping for it, which was sort of true as others in the company also seemed to agree (at least a small bit,) with Bofur's claim.

However, their discussions were cut off very short when Thorin spoke up again, his voice breaking through the silent merriment that everyone had at that moment. Every Dwarf that was sitting up from their bed rolls laid back down again as fast as they could. Bofur and Bombur looked the other way form the Dwarf King, an unexpected smile managing to make itself appear on the hat wearing Dwarf's face as he looked up into the trees, and swore that he could see someone up in those trees, the slight fire light making it through the trees and showing a slight sight of the hair he liked so much, peeking through the dark green leaves as that person looked back down on them.

"Do my ears deceive me, or is that night watch gossiping I hear?"

* * *

Everin couldn't sleep, not just because the ferns underneath her turned out to be something that made her skin itch like hell. So instead she made a job of watching over the company, looking through the trees as one pair after another sat on that log for night watch, sometimes they would sit in silence, other times there would be discussions, mostly between brothers. But what confused her most was the fact that they weren't talking about music, food or even Dwarf politics, but of her. The Witch liked to think that she wasn't that important enough to be talked about, but she did figure that she had given quite the emotional performance that now, she felt incredibly embarrassed over now that some time had passed.

She was still wondering on why she was still traveling with them, why she couldn't just leave them before they entered that horrid forest. But on her own, she just couldn't seem to find that answer, so she just stayed around them, for reasons she hoped she would find the answer to while she observed them from up high. Of course she did, thanks to their inability to lower their voices for such things, (maybe it was a man thing that Everin wasn't aware of, but they just couldn't seem to keep quiet when talking about such personal topics,) overhear them talking about their preferences in women, and for some reason she came up in that conversation as well. Sure, she found completely hilarious, and actually had to hide herself a little more in the trees to stop herself falling out of them from her laughter and shock, but all the same it was a little strange to hear a group of men she had been traveling with for so long, talking about her appearance, discussing over the good parts of her, and the apparent bad, in their opinion.

But all the same she guessed they should have seen that coming, since they were men and all that. What surprised her the most, were the comments made by Ori and Bofur. She had actually expected them all to go against her, say all the wrong things about her and such. Everin certainly didn't expect them to complement her, especially Ori's comments about the lines on her skin being considered good. It was always because of the lines on her skin, and basically the overall things that had happened to her throughout her life, Everin had never and did not consider herself even slightly good looking, or pretty. And that theory of her's was always backed up by words thrown her way by so many hurtful and stinging people, ever since she was a child.

So she was both confused and slightly happy to hear that there was something good about her appearance, at least in the eyes of thirteen or less Dwarves. The hat wearing Dwarf seemed a lot more embarrassed than the others to say something about her or women in particular, though she did have the feeling that in any other situation, he would have spoken with a lot less reservations. For some reason there was a part of her that really liked what Bofur had said, more than the others comments in fact. It was probably because he called her beautiful, well her hair essentially, but still it counted. It made her smile, and also reminded her about his smile as well, and how much she would have liked to see it again while she was looking down on them.

Her wish was granted then when he looked up to the trees where she was, and smiled up at her. Sure, she knew that she was giving away her position since it was obvious that he knew where she was, but all the same she didn't seem to care of that all that much. His smile seemed to make her feel all the better about where she was, but all the same she knew she had to run off before something else happened and she was discovered by the rest of the group. It took a little while longer than she wasn't bothered to admit to quietly back away so she couldn't see his smile any longer, letting the green branches cover the sight as she backed away.

As she moved through the trees, she let her thoughts peel back, now that she was in a less emotional state and able to think clearly for once, to the questions Gandalf had sort of thrusted her way without warning, just like the fact that this company was going to go into the Mirkwood. She eventually stopped on a sort of comfortable branch of a tree that was quite a bit aways form the group, so far in fact that she couldn't even see the slight firelight anymore, but she knew they weren't that far away, and let the thoughts that she needed to think, take place. Everin sat back, closing her eyes and thinking as best as she could, mulling over the answers she knew where in her for these two important questions. The first being why she cared so much to come as far as she did, the next being if she was going to go into the forest with them.

First question, why she cared to come as far as she did, and that inevitably true as while she had traveled with many others (for their personal gain and often entertainment more than anything else,) she had never traveled so far with or for anyone before this. The optional answer of the debt was immediately shoved to the side, because apart of her knew that wasn't it at all, and had nothing to do with it. The song they sang back in Bag End, she remembered it having an effect on her, or rather her hands as it got her to sign a contract without reading the fine print exactly. Whenever she thought of the song, she would think of Bilbo's speech before the Orcs attacked, at least the bits she remembered while she was fighting for control, but still the message was good enough for her to understand and agree with.

But Bilbo's understanding was still different from her's, since he still had a home to go to when this was all over and Erebor might, or might not be won back, Everin did not. She knew what it was like to have no home, to move on and never look back, (mostly because looking back rewarded her with harsh words being thrown her way, or something being actually thrown if she wasn't careful.) So while she did share a sentiment of helping these people getting back their home, but there was another part to it all. That part being, that since she knew what it was like to be without a home for so many years, and didn't want that for anyone else.

Well, she thought to herself with a small smile on her face, there was the answer to the first question; perhaps this wasn't as hard as she really thought. At least she did think that until she remembered the fact that there was still one question left, one that haunted her a little more than she would have liked, with memories she wished she didn't have and ties she wished to break. It would have been so much easier if they didn't have to go through that place, it would have been nicer and cleaner to do this quest with them, like she apparently wanted to do, if they didn't have to go into the Mirkwood. But the world was never that easy, clean or nice for her, so of course this would happen, if not something else much worse would be in its place. So now she had to figure out, whether or not she would go there, and why she would. Two in one question, she was so lucky.

It was while she was thinking this over, that she started to slip into an unintentional sleep, or at least on the brink of it since she closed her eyes and let the world slip past her while her thoughts continued, this time images an such joined the words. When she again wondered on why she would go on further with them, she saw the images of Bofur's smile, the memory of Ori and Bilbo helping her to her feet, watching over her so that she was safe and healthy, the sounds of the Dwarves, yelling out to her to be safe, being infuriated at her gaining the injuries on her back in that Goblin Town, the feelings of Thorin hugging her on the Carrock, and the softness of Bofur's hat when she buried her face there in embarrassment and comfort. But one thing that stood out to her was the words Bofur had said, the very first night that they spoke in the many that would follow.

"_I get that you don't know us, and you might not trust us because of that, but we're not really that bad."_

Time had changed her since that night, and though it was strange for her to admit, she did trust them. Again, being alone for many years like she was, that was a mighty surprise for her to find while she was in her sleep/awake state. She trusted them, and cared for them very much (obviously she did, otherwise the marks on her back wouldn't be there,) and while she liked to think that she wasn't overly sure if they cared for her, there was a part of her, and the memory of them yelling out for her to be safe, that spoke volumes louder than that. There was the kindness she saw in them over the months they had all been traveling together, the genuine smiles they gave her, the food that didn't need to be wasted on her, the fact that they hadn't once yet, since that night with the Orcs, shirked away from her in fear or immediate distrust/disgust, in fact if anything they only seemed to either respect, or trust her more.

Now, Everin didn't know one damned thing over the culture of Dwarves, and wasn't ever going to pretend that she did, but there was a thought she had that it was possible that their culture, being one of tough warriors, would respect someone that managed to attack a gang of Orcs without thinking twice, and getting out alive at least. But then again she wasn't sure of that, but she would like to know their culture, she knew that for sure. And just like that, she also wanted to know them better, wanted to stay by their side and continue to fight with them, even if that not only meant going into that forest of nightmares and memories, but dying in the future.

A noise woke her from her dreams and certainties of what she was going to do next, and she reacted immediately, sitting up and looking down at what was below her, the unexpected sunlight shining in her eyes for those few moments, so she had to focus her bleary eyes before she could see what had made the noise. And as soon as her eyes caught sight of the lone herd of Wargs, without one Orc in sight, but that didn't make them any less dangerous, as there were many of them, and only one of her. But she had to do something though, since she could see where the Wargs where heading, was exactly closer to where the Dwarves were camping than where she was now, and she couldn't run faster than them in time. She had to fight, and fight right now.

Anger coursed through the lines once more as she thought quickly on what she knew made her furious. Memories both past and recent, the react ones being the mocking laughter of the Goblin King and the ugly face of the Pale Orc as it reared its club of a hand, ready to kill her and then the wounded Thorin behind her. But what got her right then was the memory of the wounded Thorin, seeing him getting hurt, and the wounds that the others gained that night, remembering their grunts of pain as they tried to hide it, and fight it like they were fighting the Orcs and Wargs. The lines grew red on demand after that, the nails longer and sharper than ever before as she dropped quietly out of the tree, leaving her belongings behind and silently killing the very few at the back of the Pack as she worked her way up. It took some time before the vicious animals caught on, but then again it took some time for those few at the back to die.

As soon as the leader turned back and looked at her as her hands once again were stained in their foul smelling blood, she knew it was time for her to run, and so she did before the animal could even growl for the rest of them to pay attention and come after her. They followed her as what was left of her anger fueled mind lead them away from the Dwarves to the best of her ability, only stopping when they reached a clearing with many rocks around, and she realized there wasn't really anywhere else to run that wouldn't lead her too far away from the group, or too close to them. She jumped up on the rocks as high as she could manage, the Wargs trying to jump after her as she continued to attack them as well.

The fight dragged on for a while, a few Wargs dying here and there over time as she slowly cut them down, but all the same they were still hard as ever to kill or even wound. Thankfully they were unable to wound her either, thanks to some really quick movement on her part and managing to dodge the large teeth or claws that tried to come after her. Some time, as said before, passed as this went on and on, her arms tiring as the anger, that she did like to think lasted much longer than this, was starting to wane and falter. Her arms were getting heavier and tired, and she started to worry that there wasn't much more of a fight that she would have been able to give.

Another noise went off in the distance, catching the attention of everything involved in the battle, as it was sort of a strange sight to see thirteen Dwarves, a Hobbit and a Wizard coming running out of nowhere and attacking with such fervor. Everin paused for only a moment, the red of lines on her skin fading again as she saw them coming to her rescue, but of course it was only something that lasted that single moment as she grew angry once more at the thought of the Wargs doing damage to them. So she kept at it, her strength somewhat renewed as she managed to knock some of them down from behind before they were able to reach any of the Dwarves.

Everin pulled out the sword she had kept on her person, the sword Thorin had given her, and slashed, cut and stabbed wherever she could at any Warg she could that was unfortunate enough to cross her path. Her tiredness and wounds were still with her, screaming out at her with every attack she made and pleading silently for her to stop and just fall down, but she didn't dare listen yet, there was still so much more that she had to do before that could even be an option. Before long they managed to take them out, the Wargs finally falling to the steel of their weapons and might of their spirit. The group, apart from her, Thorin and Gandalf, cheered in celebration at their win, slapping each other on the back and calling out at the fact that many of them owed each other a drink whenever they rode into the ext town on their venture.

The Witch herself at this time was saved from such festivities as she was still high up on one of the many rocks in the clearing, which was probably a good thing as there was still the problem of red in her line dented skin. She hadn't moved, forcing herself into absolute stillness as her breathing calmed itself, and tried to do the same to her still wild beating heart and frayed nerves that happened at such occasions. No one had noticed this just yet, for which she was glad and thankful for, for as long as it would last anyway. Which apparently wasn't long as Bofur caught sight of her at some point, and called out to her to come down to their level.

But instead of doing so, or even giving verbal reasoning for anything, she instead stood from her place, and jumped off, running back to the forest that they had just exited from. They watched her for a moment, the hat wearing Dwarf being especially hurt as he believed that it was him talking up to her, that scared her off. However, that was seemingly cut off by the Grey Wizard just turning back to their leader, and asking after some certain points that added up to a Warg pack being so close to where they were and what that meant for all of them. But it seemed as though that was not what the rest of the company wanted to talk about, Thorin apparently also being one of those in the company that were concentrating mostly on watching where she had disappeared off to, either worried or annoyed, the expression sort of described both feelings.

"Where would she go, when this venture is over?" Thorin was sort of thinking aloud, not meaning to actually say that in front of the entire company, but then again now that he had said that, everyone did wonder on that. It didn't look as though she had a home, or even someone to even talk to her before she was went travelling with them, which would explain how closed in she was when this all started. In fact, she had spoken definitely a lot more than she had before the Goblin town and Orc attack. And they appreciated that, but still wondered after her, questioning her past, her present self, even her future.

Who was this person really? There were things they had the feeling she had experienced in her life, that she was unlikely to ever tell them about. And why she should she? It wasn't as if she knew them all that much either, or truly joined this quest by her own choice. Gandalf having coerced her into this with a debt that, once again, no one knows the reason behind, but apparently meant something to her. Speaking of the Wizard, he looked back to the forest just as everyone else was, and answered the unmeant question to the best of his ability.

"There isn't many places she could go, no town accepts her, humans and elves alike turn her away because she is dangerous to them." Thorin remembered the words spoken between Lord Elrond and Gandalf during their stay at Rivendell, and felt anger in him when he realized that the Grey Wizard still had not told her of this fact. Sure, they had been in many dangerous situations over the last few days, but the night before would a have been more than a good time to tell her of this, instead of arguing with him over going through the Mirkwood, and apparently upsetting her even more. And yet despite of all of that, Thorin couldn't help but be confused on one thing.

"Why do the elves push her away, when they are so willing to take in and open their homes to the lady of the Greenwood, who is well known by all as the Witch Queen?" He wondered for a moment why he should sound so angry with what he was saying, after all, it wasn't as if he knew Everin any better than the others who talked to her did, possibly no better than the Grey Wizard either. The others of the Company just watched their argument once again, and while it wasn't the least bit surprising to see them argue, the reason was pretty interesting all on its own. Especially for Bilbo, who had only ever heard Everin's explanation of the Witch King, and wasn't aware of the existence of a Witch Queen.

"Because while she may have ties to the Lady Galadriel, those same ties she has, also connect her to the Witch King of Angmar. And it is because of that that she loses control like she does, that she has to stay away everyone, and everyone has to push her away." But that didn't sate the anger that he still was unsure that he had, and accidentally let what he knew slip. Thorin felt bad in the fact that he had broken the unspoken promise that he, Bilbo and Everin had made after hearing that conversation the night they stayed in the Homely House. Gandalf looked very confused (just like the rest of the company when they heard it,) in the fact that Thorin knew what he had said, while Bilbo had the expression of being oddly upset himself.

"That still doesn't fully explain the reasoning behind her banishment from Rivendell, if anything she was better behaved than all of the Company in that Homely House, or wouldn't it have mattered anyway? That Because she's a Witch she receives and apparently deserves nothing but being pushed away and banished from anywhere safe that she could go, but at the same time they show respect to her Queen," The rest of the Dwarves, while at first being confused about this factor, quickly turned to anger. As what their leader and King had definitely said was true, she was the better polite, behaved and respectable during their one night of stay, so the fact that she was the only one to be banished, and no one else, was both confusing and infuriating to them.

"How do you know about that?" Gandalf looked angry himself and it as though he was directing it at Thorin for some reason, though the Dwarf leader knew better than anything that the Wizard was truly angry at himself, that he had let this banishment pass without more of a fight. It was because of this that Thorin knew the Grey Wizard did care for her on some level, though he did not know what the relationship between them truly was. Thorin walked a bit aways from the Wizard, as right at that moment it seemed safer to be a bit aways from him. He continued to talk though, not ready to walk out of this conversation just yet.

"It seems you and the Elf Lord have a similarity in not being able to keep your voices down, among other things," He didn't elaborate, there really wasn't that much of a need to. The others of the Company had walked away a bit themselves, as they had their own things to think over thanks to this new information they had been given from their leader and the Grey Wizard. Some were more furious, their anger having not died down at the 'Tree shaggers' as they called them in their minds, cursing them for pushing away and banishing her when nothing bad was ever done to them by her hand, at least nothing they knew of.

"Do not worry yourself on telling her by the way, she heard as much as I did, which is still more than you think." Now he was done with the conversation, following his people in wondering off to deal with thoughts on the subject. It was just after he said this though, that Everin reappeared, her pack this time on her back and shredded material that was supposed to be a shirt put on to cover as much of her upper torso as it could at the time. Her anger had died down at last, so now she was left to only feel confused as she saw the company all off in different directions of the clearing they were in.

She tried giving a questioning look to the Grey Wizard, but for some reason he didn't want to face her, which she shook off a little more easily than she knew she probably should. Instead she walked off to the direction of where Bofur was, as he was the easiest to talk to, and the one she knew the most. Everin moved slowly, as he seemed to be mightily agitated with something that must have been on his mind. Deciding that (since his back was to her,) she should gain his attention now before anything else happened, Everin cleared her throat. Bofur turned, and for some reason quickly hid how agitated she knew he really was, instead trying to give her one of his smiles in order to convince her that he was fine. And while she still found his smile nice, she wasn't ready to let go of the fact that this was the first time she had seen the jolly Dwarf in anything but a happy mood when no danger was near.

"Ah, Evie you're back," He knew that she didn't believe his fake good mood as he sat on a rock nearby, patting the space next to him for her to sit down. She relented to sit next to him, but still she was going to ask after what angered him so, even if it was just hidden inside him. Bofur seemed to know this was coming anyway, and let his shoulders slump in the way they were going to anyway, before she even got the chance to ask. He sighed and looked to her, and she gave a small smile of victory and comfort, comfort in the fact that she didn't really have to push him that hard to tell her anything, or break down his defenses.

"So… Gandalf and Thorin had another argument while I was gone?"

"You have quite the eye for insight lass," Bofur chuckled half heartedly, taking off his hat and feeling the soft material in his calloused hands. Everin watched him, during one of the few times that he ever really took the hat off during their venture, and got the chance to see the top of his head uncovered by the hat, which was more the example of hat hair that she had ever seen before, strangled back by the two braids on either side of his head. Despite how rugged and tangled it looked, probably caused by the fact that they had been through a few things over the days before hand, Everin got this sudden need to try an attempt at running her hand through it, as it was a nice color of chocolate brown and she had a though that it might be softer than it looked. But she held herself back, though of course Bofur did manage to catch her looking at his rugged hair when he turned back to her.

Everin blushed and looked away, hoping that the Dwarf didn't see how red her face was in that moment. Though of course doing that accidentally had her hair swipe by his face, meaning that he, by chance, got the scent of her hair practically shoved under his nose, and then he also went red in the face. Really any action that could be taken with hair was seen as a very intimate thing between Dwarves, brushing braiding, even smelling the scent of it. It was an accident; he knew that as she was unaware of such things and hadn't intended to do it anyway, but still he didn't feel all that bad about it. As her hair did smell nice, the scent of dust after rain, and old fire coals. Bofur, as he had already admitted to liking her hair, did want to smell it again, but for the sake of her honor, Dwarf etiquette and just plain manners, he held himself back.

All in all, the two were left to look in different directions from each other, red plastered on their faces, but all the same they weren't feeling all that bad. It was while this was happening that Bilbo saved them from the awkward silence between them both by walking forward and clearing his throat to gain their attention. When he saw the red on their faces, he wisely and thankfully chose not to mention it, instead brought up the reason he had approached them in the first place. The Hobbit didn't need to look over his shoulder to know that others in the company were sneaking glances back to Everin whenever they got the chance, the argument that had recently gone on between their leader and the Grey Wizard replaying in their minds.

"We have to go, Gandalf says there might be more Wargs following this pack, Orcs after them," They nodded and stood, following Bilbo as they walked back to the rest of the group, who all said nothing, just continued to walk on. Everin didn't look upset anymore, or angry, instead she was just oddly complacent at that moment, walking beside Bofur and looking around as they exited the clearing and walked into the next forest beyond. Her back still stung like nothing else, (perhaps the wounds that had closed were now open thanks to the excessive jumping she had done recently,) so she tried to maintain herself in a way that didn't over stretch her back, and make her feel worse. The pack was also on her back, but it wasn't as bad before as it was lighter, (thanks to greedy Goblin hands that she so enjoyed chopping off,) but it was still on her back, and didn't make her feel any better.

But, just like before, she said nothing of her pain, thinking that everyone already had so much on their minds, that they wouldn't have wanted to really bother with her all that much. But of course, since he was walking right next to her, Bofur could see how restrictively she was walking, and was about to say something of it, when he was interrupted by a familiar howling that the whole company heard, and it wasn't that far away. Everin and Bofur were at the back of the company, so they quickly looked behind them, expecting to see a lonely Warg rushing towards them, only to find that there was nothing. Thorin still didn't like the theory of it not being that far away, and ordered everyone to run for cover, which turned not to be that hard to find as this forest was just like the clearing, with large rocks all over the place, breaking through lines of trees.

Still they didn't hide right where they were, instead they all ran upwards towards a large rock face, which could be considered a rocky hill, but it was much bigger than that, but smaller than a mountain all the same. Bofur quickly grabbed her hand so she would stay by him, fearful that the wounds on her back would cause her to be left behind. She didn't argue, instead held his hand tighter as they ran on, all of them eventually hiding after they had made their way up, and found the perfect hiding place for the moment, large rocks towering over them from all sides and above them, so no Orc could see them here, even form far away. The only ways out were two, one that lead to another clearing that they could see just fine, just in case the Orcs entered from that side, the other was a small path that they had used to get here.

The noises continued on, and it sounded like they were all around them, surrounding them from all sides. Which was a bad side of the rock walls that surrounded them, as they could hear them, and while the Orc pack couldn't see them, the company couldn't see the Orc pack either. Everin was still clutching onto Bofur's hand, and was certainly not ready to let go just yet, as all that running had only made her feel worse, and all she wanted was to collapse on the ground from both exhaustion and pain, the grip she had on his hand was keeping her up right and pretending that she was okay. Thorin turned to the Hobbit, and strangely enough, ordered him to go up the path again and see how far away the Pack was. Everin wanted to argue against it, but then Bilbo surprised her by nodding his head and crawling up the path like he was asked, even though he certainly looked afraid.

Bravery of Hobbits certainly did continue to surprise her, even now. The rest of the company was left to stay where they were, standing in silence and waiting for Bilbo to hopefully come back. Everin looked over to the rest of the company now that she got the chance, and found it strange that they were avoiding her gaze. And while this probably wasn't the best time for such things, she still wanted to know what was up with them recently, since they seemed just fine when she left the clearing to go get her practically empty pack and belongings, that argument must have been something interesting, because it certainly wasn't loud, otherwise she would have heard it. But as said before, this might have been the inappropriate timing to ask what was up, but all the same she wanted to know what exactly was going on, and so turned to Bofur to ask.

"What exactly were Gandalf and Thorin arguing about?" And now it was Bofur's turn to avoid her gaze, and she only felt that much worse and suspicious in what had happened. She was going to dig further on it, but was interrupted by the Hobbit running back down the path and towards fifteen expectant ears. Thankfully he was still alive, but looking a little to freaked out for her liking as he tried to get out what he had seen over the rock ledge towards the mountains not that far away. But of course he was continuously interrupted himself by the company complimenting him on his apparent skills of sneaking and remaining in the shadows, out of sight. Eventually, just she would have in the circumstances, he snapped and yelled to them exactly what he was actually trying to tell them.

"-I am trying to tell you that there is something else out there!"

That got them quiet like nothing else, Thorin looking only more annoyed at the thought, while the others just looked fearful. Gandalf on the other hand, was surprisingly calm and if anything, just curious as he asked things after the Hobbit on what he had seen. The more the questions went on, the more suspicious the company became that the Grey Wizard knew what this creature was, but what they didn't know, was why. Everin had a clue though, and while she didn't like where that was going, all the same it was going there despite her wishes that it wouldn't. The rest of the company was sort of on the same track as her, but all the same there wasn't that much they could ask after as they were sort of being hunted and surrounded at the time.

"What form did it take? Like a bear?"

"Y-yes, but bigger, much bigger," That did nothing to liven her hopes against her earlier suspicion, and she was left with everyone else to question if Gandalf knew about this beast, and if so, why lead them here with something so dangerous being nearby. The Wizard turned away just as Bofur asked if he did know about this creature, instead looking to the only other way out they had out of the rocky place. Meanwhile the others spoke of doubling back, But Everin knew before Thorin even shot that idea down that it would do them all no good, but then they couldn't stay where they were now for long, and running ahead looked as though it wouldn't last them all long either.

"We have to ahead," She muttered, but knew full well that she hadn't been ignored, some of the Dwarves nodding their heads in agreement, despite them all knowing just as well as her, that there was still the chance of being surrounded again by the Orcs, and now this creature to, if they did. But then that chance wasn't as big as staying here or doubling back. They were about to move forward when Gandalf halted them once more, the words he spoke into the already tense atmosphere sounding more like an order to them all than the suggestion it was hidden as.

"There is a house; it's not far from here, where we might find refuge," Thorin already didn't seem to like the sound of it, but Everin meanwhile was focusing on the 'might' in his wording. Already they were in a bad situation, so the thought that there could be some refuge ahead was nice, but that 'might' was weighing heavily on her mind that they should dismiss that possibility as soon as possible and try to move on alone as fast as they could. Because if they didn't have full confidence in their minds that where they were heading was safe, (since this quest was already heading for a completely unsafe place,) then there really wasn't that much sense in stopping there and endangering themselves.

"Who's house? Are they friend or foe?" By the expression on the Dwarf king's face, she could tell that he was leaning more closely to the answer of foe, and was damned tired about that. But what really wasn't helping with Everin's strange intuition that perhaps they shouldn't find haven and refuge there, in fact maybe just avoid it completely and run for their lives while they still had them (at least for the time they inevitable would have them,) was Gandalf's reply. And she didn't have to look around to the others to see that they more than likely completely agreed with her on that stance as well.

"Neither, he will help us, or he will kill us," And as much that Everin liked to think that they could just continue running on and possibly (it was a small possibility,) get away with at least their skin still on their bodies, the Witch knew just as well that she couldn't do that, the scars on her back being something that was going to drag her behind, before she was left behind completely. There wasn't that much of a choice in what they could do now, despite what she liked to think and what she wanted to hope on the plan of continuing to run until finally they no longer could. She didn't need Thorin and Gandalf to confirm that for her to see it, but still they did it anyway.

"Is there any other choice?"

A roar went off in the distance once more, answering the question before Gandalf did.

"None,"

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**Please review, constructive criticism always welcome. **


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